At Rua da Madeira 182, next to São Bento Railway Station, is a wall of 3,000 azulejos on the façade of Gare (a dance club). The panel covers 135 square metres and was inaugurated on June 27 last year as part of the Locomotiva art project that ran for six months from December 2014 to June 2015. Brought to life by Project Director Miguel Januário, the wall of tiles exhibit expressions contributed anonymously by Porto natives, answering the question “Who are you, Porto?”
It is a timely question, as it turns out — this area in and around São Bento Station is going to change radically, soon. I wrote about it here (see the comments, too).
More photos of the project can be found on Locomotiva’s Facebook page. See also this Sapo article about Lisbon and Porto’s “illustrated streets” which explains how “Quem És, Porto?” is part of a larger movement to transform the streets of Portugal’s two largest cities through art. It’s only in Portuguese, but worth running the text through an online translator and checking out the photos.
May 15, 2016
Album: Portugal [Spring 2016]
