The project HOME is the result of the artistic residence "Living Art - Photography Field Trip" that I
attended in September 2012, at the Robinson Foundation, in Portalegre, a town in the Alentejo, in central
Portugal. With the Foundation as subject, the participants were given total creative freedom.
The Robinson Foundation occupies the premises of the old Robinson Cork Factory, that was active
from 1848 to 2009. After the factory’s liquidation, the Robinson Foundation (created in 2005) tried to recover
its heritage and find different ways to renew and bring life back to the old complex. The renovation project
was commissioned to Eduardo Souto de Moura, and Graça Correia, two internationally acclaimed
Portuguese architects.
The main purpose of the Robinson Foundation is to ensure that the buildings of the old factory don't
die. In order to do so, it tried to create a movement called "New Inhabitants of the Robinson Space" and sent
out invitations to several local, cultural and artistic associations, asking them to consider relocation to the old
factory.
However, due to reasons beyond the control of the Foundation, the project was blocked and the
relocations delayed and postponed to an unspecified future date. The effect was demoralising to all the
prospective "New Inhabitants of the Robinson Space", already struggling with the idea of sharing the same
space with other groups.
The plan proposes specific areas for each of the associations, such as specially designed
classrooms and rehearsal rooms, and several other common areas: an administrative office, a coffee shop,
and a trophy and recreational room. The sharing of these spaces has met considerable resistance. Several
groups maintain that their specific rooms contain features which help define and shape the identity of their
association. And so sharing them in the future, would result in a loss of individual identity.
When I realised that the relationship between the groups and their own symbolic rooms went beyond
the material aspects, I thought it was relevant to register them. The usage of these spaces is now at an
impasse: uncertain about their future and fully aware of their past, as if reflected in each wall. This was my
starting point.
I sensed, right from the start, that this was a delicate matter for the institutions involved and as I went
on with the project, it became evident that this was not at all an easy subject to deal with. In several talks I
had with different associated people, I grasped that, for a number of them, relocating was out of the question.
And if moving itself was already difficult to accept, the delays and the suspension of the project, created a
kind of mirage effect that only reinforced their early suspicions.
So, what mostly appealed to me was capturing the identity of each group, reflected in the space they
occupy. None of the rooms - although photographed without people - is quite empty, we are left with a
feeling that there is always someone there, traces of life, remains of the passage of the time. This passage of
the time is crucial, as we are dealing with buildings with long histories, where the walls appear to collect
memories and mementos of past generations. Moving to a new place, shared with the other groups, means
that they feel as if they’re diluting their history, undermining it. They feel, as mentioned before, a loss of
identity.
The attachment they have is so great, that they even ignore the precarious conditions of several of
the buildings. The material aspects are relegated to give way to emotional quandaries. It is highly probable
that relocating to the Robinson Foundation would greatly improve the quality of their headquarters, yet they
appear unconcerned about this.
As some authors have noted1, imposed "modernising changes" are often received with a feeling that
someone else is dictating what works better for us. When the better for us is refused or opposed, for several
reasons (material or non-material), it's automatically labelled as a reactionary attitude towards modernity.
Notwithstanding the efforts and the genuine care of the Robinson Foundation during the process, these kind
of changes are always nuanced and often give rise to a more complex set of issues. Logistically, however,
the limitations seem quite obvious - it would, for example, make no sense building six coffee shops.
HOME is the fantasy of what brings together all these people and a suggestion for the Robinson
Space. I organised the images as they were part of a single space and purposely chose not to caption them,
as that would be segmenting the whole in six parts.
The result of these choices is a set of 23 images from five different spaces (six associations, but the
Orpheum of Portalegre is in the same building as the Euterpe Musical Society) that function as a whole.
Doing so, I'm fully aware that the things which separate them are small, subtle, but vitally important
differences which can't be ignored as they are also part of the rich fabric of each institution. But in HOME
what remains is not what separates them, rather what brings them all together.
