CREATIVE PORTUGUESE 'PLAYED' MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AS IF THESE WERE CANVASES...

The Cavaquinho is a musical instrument of Greek-Latin origin as all European chordophones, but it was from Minho (a northern region of Portugal) that the great journey set out...

The strength held by Brazil or Cape Verde in a world of music and of music of the world is inseparable from the acoustic presence of the Brazilian or Cape Verdean Cavaquinho, inheritors of the Portuguese instrument.

Also noteworthy is the fact that the ukelele from Hawaii, another successor of the cavaquinho, is presently a leading character of a powerful world music movement.

Seventy Portuguese artists made an artistic intervention on cavaquinhos and the result is an exhibition currently held at a Monastery, in Lisbon. 

The seventy cavaquinhos that have been transformed into art objects use various materials and techniques. Among them, there are some that make direct reference to music, whereas others serve to make screen for a painting or collage on paper. 

With Cavaquinho common denominator - as a physical support of the expressive power - the corner-stone of the exhibition does not stop on the decorative aspect of the instrument, aiming rather the creative signature of each artist.

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ISN'T IT A SECOND LIFE???

In recent years, many young creative entrepreneurs have been forced to leave Portugal in order to find work. Yet because of this, a Portuguese young lady, owner of a music management agency, was able to bring a London success formula to Lisbon.

Located on a site of the Lisbon tramway station and close to the river, Village Underground - so is the project name - provides affordable studios for young artists in recycled shipping containers and disused buses.

The latter were supplied by Lisbon's public transportation company, Carris, which saw in the project an opportunity to revitalize its station.

For 150 euros a month, up to 60 creatives can co-habit in the fourteen units, two of which are permanently reserved for workshops and a third for short-term stays by visiting foreign artists or entrepreneurs, like a Dutch woman who was kind enough to give answer to a few questions from me, while she accepted to pose for my camera.

Her office was in a container. She liked living and working in Portugal because, as she emphasised, there was sunshine and people smiled...  Her business activity, renting tuk-tuks, was going very well, she added. She told me she never had the feeling of being in a container but in a normal office room. Through the window, she enjoyed the view of the bridge, while seagulls sometimes seemed to be watching her...

I saw a man remodelling what it seemed to be a desk, most probably to be used in an office to open soon.

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