Ana Torrie, Carlos Pinheiro, Inês Azevedo, Marta Ribeiro, Mónica Faria & Nuno Sousa.

Final exhibition of the group residency Ao Monte for the creation of artist’s books, with the collective O Senhorio. In exhibition until 4.05 at Maus Hábitos

About the exhibition and the collective:

“First we found the house. Then called each other to arrange a visit: “Its incredible,” said Mónica, “Scotch found it, has probably ten rooms, its just what we are looking for.” Some had completed their degree just months ago, others were still in that state of being tired of going to school. The space was promising, but in badly shape: lined with thick brown carpet, full of patches, with bowed doors and falling ceilings. Still it kept the charm of the old century bourgeois villas of the city.
We made an agreement with the landlord (of the apartment) and got a low rent in exchange for doing various constructing works (recover the plank floors, do the electrical installation, etc). There were many plans and projects made: an association, an exhibition space, a collective, bar, concerts. In the beginning we were more then twenty, so it was not easy to agree.
The name O Senhorio (The Lordship) name was chosen by votes in Café Aviz on a Friday night. The alternatives were not famous: Latte, Mário Neto Association (Jesus!), among others even worse. The name won by one vote.
The most megalomaniac projects stayed as intentions. Some of them were cause for many meetings, conspiracies, texts and drawings, a lot of talk in late hours. Meanwhile, dough was necessary for the construction works and materials, rents that started to accumulate, and make a living. We got good revenues by selling stuff in the Vandoma fair, made parties to help pay the expenses of space, fanzines and drawings for sale, concerts. In the midst of it all the projects we wanted to do the most were left sitting, perhaps for loss of energy, for lack of agreement, for lack of funds, for not being necessary. We had no program nor were we methodical. A guess: we like to occupy the space of things yet to accomplish.
Over 5 years many passed to work in space, to participate in meetings and projects that would never be carried out, to sing songs and make for some drinks and see what others were doing. It become a space of transition between school and the world of (un)employment, a space for dialogue and conflict, with a lot of love and little programmatic sense.
Furthermore, all the things that accumulated over that time started to sit in the attic. Some took stuff home, much of it disappeared, stolen, fled. Projects, piles of recorded videos, photographs and drawings, most we don’t even know who has it. Here we gathered some of that stuff. It was necessary to dig through boxes and dust portfolio cases, recover damaged computer disks, consult a Psychic, and a lot more. We also did a kind of Book, in the same way we did the fanzines of O Senhorio, but with what we are currently doing.”
O Senhorio