Landscape and Memory
Based on the writing of the Southwest, the Walking Festival brought together art, heritage and walking. The aim was to mark the territory by (re)creating archaeological cultural heritage into artistic cultural heritage. In this way, in places where epigraph stelae have appeared or in places associated with the walks, the artistic interventions also aim to promote the transformation and valorisation of public spaces in the villages of the parish of Ameixial.
The result of collective participatory experiences in public art, the artistic interventions on the writing of the Southwest stimulate other ways of getting to know the landscape, cultural heritage and identity of the Serra.
Installation by Sara Navarro
The painting of 7 of the 27 characters of the Southwest script in the villages Ameixial, Azinhal dos Mouros, Revezes, Tavilhão and Monte dos Vermelhos, tries to involve and relate the notions of visible and legible.
The large paintings, made in anamorphic perspective force the observer/ hiker to move, challenging him/her and leading him/her to think about the role of the archaeological cultural heritage and contemporary art in the formation of our identity.
As visuals, the paintings surprise the viewer. They transform our view of the human and natural landscape of the mountains. The visuals owe their effectiveness to a power of attraction that is, from the start, generated by the enigma effect. In turn, the legible results from the combination of the visible (which might, at the outset, appear ornamental or gratuitous) with a graphic structure that gives it meaning: the writing of the Southwest.
Ultimately, this analogy exceeds from memory and identity, while the realization of it seeks the fascinating and surprising aspect.
Sara Navarro's interventions in 2015 and 2016 resulted in the creation of new attractions in the parish of Ameixial. The work was documented in the video ‘Paisagem e Memória’ (Landscape and Memory) and also resulted in the creation of an itinerary for visiting the Escrita do Sudoeste characters painted on the walls of the village and the settlements of the parish.
Landscape and Memory Route
You can download the Route in pdf here
Installation by Ângela Menezes
To complement the archaeological exhibition on the Escrita do Sudoeste: “Quem nos Escreve desde a Serra” (Who writes to us from the mountains), in 2017 during the days of the Ameixial Walking Festival, there was a contemporary installation of five sculptural structures symbolising the Escrita do Sudoeste signs.
Ângela Menezes created this installation that represents the vowels of Escrita do Sudoeste (AEIOU), made from iron and reused fishing nets, which not only complements the content of the exhibition but also visually captivates those who visit and pass through the space. It reveals multiple perspectives as the visitor moves around, and there is also a nocturnal metamorphosis through its backlit lighting.
Installation by Leonor Pego
Bearing in mind the idea of covering the tombs where the stelae with Escrita do Sudoeste are found and which cover the Iron Age necropolises along the Vascão stream, the modelling of a stone circle is meant to create a dialogue with the circles of the threshing floors in the Monte dos Vermelhos settlement, on the Azinhal dos Mouros trail.
Installation by Ângelo Gonçalves e Luísa Ricardo
As part of an artistic intervention that involved “being” with Pessoas (People), walking and crossing Fronteiras (Borders) and building Objetos (Objects), Ângelo Gonçalves, in collaboration with Luísa Ricardo, organised three multidisciplinary public art, landscape and community interventions in 2018, the first of which was part of the Ameixial Walking Festival.
The aim was to build a landscape through the “old paths” of the Serra do Caldeirão, between Ameixial (Loulé) and Mealha (Tavira), revealing intangible elements that give visibility to the connections between people.
In “Pessoas, Fronteiras e Objetos” (People, Borders and Objects), the artistic interventions involve the construction of mobile objects, loose pieces and installations along the paths that connect these rural communities.
Photographic Exhibitions
In 2018 and 2019 the programme included exhibitions dedicated to the walking festivals held in the Algarve as part of the Algarve Walking Season Calendar, but also to other partner festivals that were invited to take part in editions of the WFA.
To perpetuate the memories of the WFA and leave a mark on the village, a street photography exhibition was held in 2022. The doors and windows of some of the village's uninhabited houses serve as frames for the photographs, which remain on Ameixial's main street.
Here's a reminder of the exhibition panels from the Walking Festivals held in 2018 and 2019
