ESTAU 2020: Urban Art takes over Estarreja
ESTAU 2020 – Estarreja Arte Urbana promises a great September in the city, with mural installations, street animation and lots of conversation.
A festival that lives in the street and in the public space. From tomorrow until 20 September, ESTAU – Estarreja Arte Urbana offers more than 30 activities, from mural installations, workshops, exhibitions, conversations, cinema, music, performances, street animation and guided tours to the open-air museum and its about 40 murals and art installations by national and international creators. ESTAU 2020 was not immune to the COVID-19 pandemic, which dictated the readaptation of its format to comply with all safety and hygiene guidelines.
Curated by Lara Seixo Rodrigues, 5 artists will be working live on new pieces that will see the light of day in 5 public places. With this edition, Estarreja’s urban art gallery will gain six new artistic pieces and extends to Fermelã and Veiros, where ESTAU had not yet left its mark.
Artists work live
One of the first urban artists in Portugal, Gonçalo MAR, will leave his unique aesthetic, populated with colour and shapes with inspiration in local flora, on a wall of the Estarreja Health Centre and will guide the urban art workshop, which will result in a mural painting in Multiusos, the building where Bordalo II’s well-known “Riverkeeper” landed in 2015, where this street art adventure began.
Padure, a Romanian artist who lives in Portugal, will be next to the Rotunda do Hospital, to trace his simple and clean line style, in a reflection on confinement, on three walls of a house in Rua da Agra, Salreu.
In Rua Desembargador Correia Teles, in front of Millo’s imposing work, Mariana Rio will create a mural about the human impact on Nature and the Planet. This intervention will have a second reading, of augmented reality.
In the civic centre of Veiros, the concrete slabs of the Pavilion of the Clube Cultural e Desportivo de Veiros will gain new patterns with the intervention of Los Pepes Studio, a duo of artists consisting of Meggie Prata and Francisco Leal, who will explore themes of the cultural identity of the territory.
Pedro Podre is also inspired by elements of the earth for his painting on an EDP transformer station, located on Avenida da Igreja, in Fermelã.
Open-air and intimate concerts
With urban art creations in the spotlight, the festival will have, over nine days, a set of activities. Highlights will be the concert of Júlio Resende, pianist, composer and one of the most international Portuguese musicians. He will be at Francisco Barbosa Square on 19th September at 9.30 p.m. to present his most recent album Cinderella Cyborg, a love affair between man and machine, between the acoustic of the piano, the drums and the double bass and the electronic sounds of the pads and chips.
“Sala de Estar” is an invitation to a more intimate discovery of the territory, activating urban art interventions, public spaces and heritage. Ciranda – the duo of musicians Gileno Santana (trumpet) and Inês Vaz (accordion) – will perform on the opening day of ESTAU, on 12 September, at 6.30 p.m., in the Municipal Library Garden. This will be followed by Lika, composer, singer and guitarist, on the 13th, at 6.30pm, in the atrium of the Casa da Cultura, and Ana Mariano, on the 20th, at 7pm, in the Library garden.
A municipality on the riverside
Together with the urban art interventions, the unique natural heritage, the traditions, the handicraft, the architectural heritage and the gastronomy intensify the invitation to come and discover this municipality on the river bank.
There are visits to BioRia and moliceiro rides on the Ria de Aveiro, visits to Casa Museu Egas Moniz and to Casa Museu Marieta Solheiro Madureira which will take place on 13 September.
The long programme foresees two exhibitions: painting by Bafo de Peixe, in the Library, and drawing on the territory by Pedro Cabral, in the Casa da Cultura. Bafo de Peixe will also lead a workshop on paper sculpture.