3 Murals in Bairro 2 de Maio, Lisboa – Portugal

In 2021 I worked on a project in collaboration with GAU, Gebalis and Museu de Lisboa in Bairro 2 de Maio. The idea was to take inspiration from paintings at Lisbon Museu and create a new interpretation of them in the context of this neighbourhood, it’s history and the people who live here (bellow you can see the paintings that inspired each piece).

For this piece I took inspiration from “Rua do Arco do Marquês D’Alegrete”, a painting from 1910 by Roque Gameiro. I chose to capture an image of day to day live and the conversations/interactions that go on in the stairwells of these buildings. All the people represented are locals that agreed to be photographed, this neighborhood has a very interesting story that continues to be told through the rest of the murals

Portugal had a revolution to end the dictatorship on the 25th of April 1974 and at the time this neighborhood was being built to house members of the secret police (allegedly), the houses were only at the skeleton phase (no floor, no windows, no doors) and shortly after the revolution (on the 2nd of May) the apartments were occupied by people who were living in shacks or had nowhere else to go. These were very trying times with people holding on to these houses with no living conditions and building them up little by little. Nowadays this is a social housing neighborhood with more buildings added to it and most of the people who originally came here are still living here today. The woman represented in this mural is one of these original occupants, I represented her with pictures from the neighborhood years ago and with original newspapers articles from the revolution and the 2nd of May (a date that gives this neighborhood its name) as the background. The piece was inspired by “Sufrágio” a painting from 1913 by Veloso Salgado.

For mural I decided to do a modern take on the painting “The Reading”  from 1955 by Abel Manta, using as reference local kids that go to an after school program created and managed by some amazing women in the neighbourhood who give their time as volunteers to help kids with whatever they might be having difficulties with and foster and environment of acceptance and inclusion for everybody.