For a few years I have been thinking on how to bring El Warcha to Lisbon, where I am from. I have been living in London for many years and lost touch with how Lisbon has been evolving, overcoming a big economical crisis and having an exponential number of tourists.
In March I started a conversation with Diego about creating a space and sharing with him my thoughts about Lisbon. A city that has underlying issues related with segregation and class inequalities. Diego is an artist that uses photography as a way of relationship, revalue the surroundings, look at time as contemplation and exchange knowledge with people. In 2013 he co-created the projeto Lá Tinha, that organises workshops to show on how to make photographic cameras reusing cans of sardines, empty film rolls and tetra pak boxes. A project that promotes a sustainable approach, fueling curiosity and respect for the time of each process. Diego encountered our project El Warcha, in Nefta and Tunis, since then the feeling of keeping creating something together was growing. I believe that a project like El Warcha could be part of the change that is being built with the communities in Lisbon, starting with the youngest people, working on decentralised neighborhoods where less opportunities are available. These questions in relation to inclusivity and social education are being discussed and we can make part of that construction, in making Lisbon a more participative city.
During our first chat about a potential project, the conversation focused on areas we knew and we had worked with in the past. We also talked about the first steps at the beginning of a project. My idea was to develop a physical space, this had already been done in London and Tunis and proved to be central when working with a specific neighborhood. Time felt also an essential component to create change. Of course I have to remember that I would need to know the necessities first to respond to them, and that just comes with experimentation.
When the lockdown started and I was back in London. On the phone Diego told me that he and a couple of other friends had started working on four emergency shelters located in Lisbon for homeless people and persons who were forced to leave the houses that they were sharing or got fired from their jobs.
There, they organised some creative activities with them during quarantine time. This shelter was created to support those who needed a space to sleep and food supplies, which was coordinated by Raquel Bravo, one of the volunteers. People have stories to tell and energy to create, they need human interaction as much as everything else. The problem was also that no one knew who was in charge of the management of the shelter. At a time when isolation is taking its toll on people, meeting the basic needs couldn’t be enough, Raquel shared the idea of creating a series of activities to generate deeper connections. Diego, Bruno, Sofia and Laura were the ones collaboratorating through a silk-screen workshop ‘Bicicleta Manifesta’ proposed by ATELIER SER, printing words onto t-shirts, they realised that a few people already had been working with this technique and were interested in being involved with it again. Seeing the results of the workshop sparked the idea of making products, the participants were interested in creating a clothing social brand that would give them a sense of empowerment and resilience. And possibly, even commercialize in a solidarity economy approach, selling it as a revenue for the people that made the artwork.
After he told me about their work we thought that it would be great to make this project happen in Lisbon and involve the homeless and the local communities, passers-by and everyone that might be interested in the project. The idea was to identify participants with different skill sets, such as woodworking, electronics, metal work and mechanics and build a cinema bike collectively.
After their experience in the shelters, Diego suggested to me to develop the Cine bike, a project we had already worked on at El Warcha in the past. The Cine Bike project was already developed in Tunis 2018, and consists of a bike that projects films in the street as a way of engaging and inspiring people, while being out in the public realm.
After their experience in the shelters, Diego suggested to me to develop the Cine bike, a project we had already worked on at El Warcha in the past. The Cine Bike project was already developed in Tunis 2018, and consists of a bike that projects films in the street as a way of engaging and inspiring people, while being out in the public realm.
After he told me about their work we thought that it would be great to make this project happen in Lisbon and involve the homeless and the local communities, passers-by and everyone that might be interested in the project. The idea was to identify participants with different skill sets, such as woodworking, electronics, metal work and mechanics and build a cinema bike collectively. Once built we could go and project films in different parts of the city. This will also contribute to an independent cinema and talk about culture with the population in Lisbon. There is no support at the moment from the government to help people, organisations and companies associated with culture and the creative industry. This project would connect cinema education and public debate. It would be a chance to talk about social inclusion, immigration, culture, the right to the city, and so on..
These shelters will be closing in a few weeks so Bruno, Diego and Raquel shared with me the idea that they had of opening a space to develop creative workshops in relation to the creation of this “social brand” that could be a practical response to technical knowledge and a way to create an income for these people’s based in their participation on the work.
I was happy to get on board and saw this as a chance to open a space that would respond or find the questions for what the society can demand – Taking that ideia further we want to develop a collaborative design studio inspired by El Warcha that has community as its main focus. This would be a community space for education, experimentation and the sharing of skills; Delivering free activities with open doors 5 days a week for anyone to come and use and develop projects with us. We started talking about the type of space we would need, the space would be divided between the workshop/tools, a space of creation and a gallery space to exhibit our work.
The next step for now is to better understand who could be involved, three different people already came forward to take part. We will then decide who should manage the space on a daily basis, how to generate a dynamic and involve collaborators who will programme the activities.
At the moment the process is to approach the council about potential spaces. Ideally the workshop would make sense, where it started with the community close to Anjos Neighborhood, Mercado de Culturas, Intendente Square but we are finding other opportunities across the river in Almada. The most important thing is to find the space that people feel welcome to and give a place for people to socialise, create relationships, express themselves and be proud of what they created.