Art? BUT IS IT

NOT MUCH gets me as rattled as turning a corner down a quaint historic street only to be assaulted by an ugly, meaningless scribble. I’m sad and infuriated for the family in the famous octopus fishing village of Santa Luzia who are regularly scrubbing down their house wall to eradicate a WASP tag.

The amount of convincing it took me to get my mother to catch a train from Tavira to Faro was epic. “But they’re so dirty, darling,” she insisted. “I mean look at all that graffiti splashed on the outside. They must be filthy inside.”

And yet, driving on the N125 through Olhão, I’m constantly entranced by the beautiful street paintings that have turned dilapidated old buildings into art galleries. There’s a street corner in São Brás that I go out of my way to show people because of its stunning street mural of an Algarvian woman.

There’s also no denying that the building just before the bridge on your way to Salir is jaw-droppingly beautiful, but only because the once-deserted old mill is now the headquarters of the Satori Artistic Association.

It’s here that I meet Satori’s main man, Tiago Guerreiro, who started the association 24 years ago. It’s the association’s artists who have decorated the walls of the Salir factory with vivid contrasting images.

They, along with renowned Portuguese street artist Dgiphi, aka Asur, are also responsible for the stunning murals on two abandoned fish canning factories on the edge of Olhão’s Bairro do Levante. Commissioned by the Olhão Council and working from old pictures, the intricate black and white murals show the proud past of Olhão’s fishing industry.

“We’re also very proud of the work we were commissioned to do at the Cunha Rivara stadium of Arraiolos and the religious mural painted by our artist Stephen Jones in Loulé last year,” says Tiago.

Paying tribute to Loulé’s patron saint Nossa Senhora da Piedade, the mural was inaugurated on May 1, on the same day as the city hosted its Festa da Mãe Soberana, billed as the biggest religious celebration south of Fátima.

It’s a far cry from the early more anarchistic days back in 1999 when Tiago and his friends were hanging out, listening to punk, reggae and heavy metal music.

“At that time here in Portugal things were very different from society today – it wasn’t considered normal to have things like tattoos, piercings and dreadlocks,” he says.

“Everyone just thought we were useless junkies, but in reality we are about social inclusion and we are fiercely patriotic about defending our family, our territory and our country.”

Doing it for others

Upliftment is Tiago’s driving force, whether it be of a downtrodden neighbourhood or a youngster needing a hand up, which is why he created Satori as a home for creatives of all types.

“Urban art is a big part of our culture, but we also do music and performance art, from juggling to stilt walking and fire breathing,” he explains. “For example, we’ve just worked at the Med Festival in Loulé and were at the Silves Medieval Festival in August.”

His most important rule is that whatever Satori’s 200-something members do, it has to be legal.

“If we find any of our artists doing illegal work, like graffiti, the first time, just as in football, you get benched and not invited to work. Get caught again and you’re out!”

He abhors vandalism and defacement of buildings, calling the people who do so egotistical, arrogant and ignorant. “What I explain to people is that mostly it is not the poor kids who are doing this, but the rich kids. A medium can of spray paint costs €5, so to make relatively good graffiti will cost up to €1,000 – it’s definitely not the kids from the ghettos doing this.”

Until about ten years ago, urban art was a crime, but Satori started speaking to the Loulé Council asking for spaces where people could legally paint. “We called the project Dar Cor a Cidade (Colour the City) and in 2014 we got the first official pass from the council to paint the Skate Park,” reports Tiago. One of his innovations was to encourage the council to bring graffiti offenders to Satori where they could learn about making beautiful spaces rather than vandalizing them.

“We try to teach them that it’s not about your ego and putting your name all over the place, but rather using your talent to make beautiful things that make us all proud of our towns and our country.

“The thing about graffiti is that once an artist has painted his signature, others cannot paint over it, which means that it spreads exponentially, but if there are legal controlled spaces, it works for everybody.”

Bringing change

Satori is all about cleaning and beautifying spaces so, for instance, wherever they are commissioned to work, they commit to removing illegal graffiti and tags for 100m around the project.

I’m told the fines in Portugal for illegal street art range from €100 to €25,000 euros, but that’s obviously only if you get caught and prosecuted. It’s hard to police, especially when a lot of the perpetrators are under 16 years old and therefore can’t be prosecuted.

“Sometimes the police catch them and confiscate their spray cans, but generally they run away only to come back and do it again,” says Tiago. “It’s a big power trip game to them and that’s the problem. It’s just stupid ego.

“Portugal has its freedom now and here in the Algarve we need to keep the essence of our heritage, which is being the paradise of Europe. We need to protect our ecology, our countryside and our tradition.”

More About Satori

The association’s next fundraising project (25% of their funding is from sponsorship and the rest from selling their art) is a Halloween Party at the Salir Factory next month, on 31 October.

They are decorating Lick, the biggest disco in the Algarve in the Vilamoura area. They are also in negotiations with the Castro Marim council to create a nativity scene in Odeleite for Christmas this year.

Want to know more?

satori.associacao@gmail.com / Facebook:Associacao Artistica - Satori

IN CASE YOU were wondering what the incessant Wasp and Kams thing is all about, according to Europetutor.com, Wasp is a person’s name who is a graffiti writer and artist. Kams is the name of his crew. Wasp, a professional graffiti artist, has been painting since 2006, but apparently not all the Wasps you see are written by him. The word on the street is kids do it to copy him.

Of course, verifying any of this is impossible as graffiti artists have a strict code of anonymity and no snitching.

Their other “rules” are said to be:

- Historical monuments, religious institutions and small businesses are out of bounds.

- You should not write over someone else’s work.

True graffiti is illegal and is always about fame and not money. It has a strict hierarchy, with the most visible or skilled artists known as kings, with crowns within their work being a reference to their status. Lesser artists can only gain status by impressing the ‘kings’.

UNDENIABLY the most famous street artist in the world, Banksy has taken the genre to a whole new level. A brilliant artist, he is also a political activist, satirical social commentator and probably the world’s most relevant influencer.

The elusive artist, whose identity remains a mystery, has turned the world’s attention to everything from domestic violence and bullying to capitalism, greed and hypocrisy.

Some of his most recent controversial works have been statements on the Russian war against Ukraine. He apparently confirmed to The Art Newspaper that he created seven murals in locations hardest hit by Russian bombardment, including one showing a man resembling Vladimir Putin being thrown to the ground by a young boy in a judo match.

Thought to have grown up in Bristol, UK, where he started as a freehand graffiti artist in the 90s with a crew called DryBreadZ, he moved to London and has since gained worldwide notoriety with his works selling for millions. In one of his stunts, his Girl with Red Balloon sold at an auction for £1million, before shredding itself.

Banksy uses stencils to create his art, which has been described by art brokers as “complex and emotive, yet simple to digest and appreciate”.

In his book, Wall and Piece, Banksy claims: “The people who truly deface our neighbourhoods are the companies that scrawl their giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff.”

CONSIDERED TO BE Portugal’s most famous urban artist, and one of the top in the world, Vhils was born in 1987 and grew up in Seixal, an industrialised suburb across the river from Lisbon.

According to his website: “He was deeply influenced by the transformations brought on by the intensive urban development the country underwent in the 1980s and 1990s. He was particularly inspired by how city walls absorb the social and historical changes that take place around them.

Applying his original methods of creative destruction, Vhils digs into the surface layers of our material culture like a contemporary urban archaeologist, exposing what lies beyond the superficiality of things, making visible the invisible and restoring meaning and beauty to the dimensions buried beneath.

Since 2005, he has presented his work in over 30 countries around the world in solo and group exhibitions, site-specific art interventions, artistic events and projects in various contexts – from working with communities in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, to collaborations with reputed art institutions including MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (Lisbon), Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati), Le Centquatre-Paris (Paris), Centre Pompidou (Paris), CAFA Art Museum (Beijing), and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (San Diego).

An avid experimentalist, Vhils has been developing his personal aesthetics in a plurality of media besides his signature carving technique: from stencil painting to metal etching, from pyrotechnic explosions and video to sculptural installations. He has also directed music videos, short films, and stage productions.

PORTUGUESE FASHION DESIGNER JESSICA ANTONIO IS THE FOUNDER AND CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF HER EPONYMOUS LABEL J-ANT. IN A WORLD OF ‘FAST FASHION’ WE FIND OUT WHY SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE

Words: SALLY DIXON