Tóssan was an illustrator, painter and also a writer, but this is the least known facet of this artist, born in Vila Real de Santo António 100 years ago. Throughout his life, he wrote poems and chronicles "a little about everything". The adventures of Eusébio Maldonado, the detective Pararraios, published in the Diário de Lisboa for youth, are also his. Bringing together all the writings of this «wonderful» Algarve is the objective of a book that is being organized by Vasco Rosa, in partnership with the Manuel Viegas Guerreiro Foundation, from Querença.
In fact, Tóssan, who will be in evidence at the Querença International Literary Festival (FLIQ), which begins this Friday, was António Fernando dos Santos, a villager from Vila Real «extremely funny, cheerful and funny, even though he doesn't seem like it». says investigator and journalist Vasco Rosa.
This year, a collection of Tóssan's drawings was published as part of the Setúbal Illustration Festival. And so much so that this Algarvian drew, from book covers for António José Saraiva, to works for the magazine of the Embassy of Brazil in Lisbon, through advertisements and one of his best-known works: a portrait of António Aleixo, his fellow countryman.
In it, the Algarvian poet appears with a hat on his head, in what is one of the most widespread and well-known images of the author of “This book that I leave you” that Tossán met in Coimbra, when both were hospitalized with tuberculosis.
But as for the drawings, the work is done and compiled. Now, what many people don't know is that Tóssan was also a writer. Vasco Rosa, a scholar of the Algarve artist, is putting together all the writings so that they can be gathered in a book.
“We are going to make a complication of his works, such as chronicles, some unpublished. A book only with what he wrote and, in the end, with a historical and biographical study to be ready by the end of the year, with the support of the Manuel Viegas Guerreiro Foundation», he explains to Sul Informação.
The work with the greatest impact by Tóssan was “Cão Pêndio”, a book in which, always drawing a dog, the Algarvian plays with words. A “Tact Dog” is represented with a dog connected to the plug and a “Right Dog” becomes an animal playing the guitar…
“Tóssan has not yet been properly valued. The idea of rediscovering it and showing it, putting it on the map, once again, is indispensable even in regional terms. He was a very original person as a designer and even a comedian, but, as the books he made were not republished, it is normal that the person's memory is lost», regrets Vasco Rosa.
Whoever still remembers Tóssan is Gabriel Guerreiro Gonçalves, president of the Manuel Viegas Guerreiro Foundation. "Those who lived with him don't forget him anymore," he recalls Sul Informação. “I knew him well. He was a fun guy who always lived life intensely and let's hope we can immortalize him», he says.
This year, FLIQ, which kicks off this Friday, August 3rd, has as its theme Literature and Illustration. “The choice was made by Tóssan, who is a value that is very dear to us. He was, for example, a good friend of our patron Manuel Viegas Guerreiro and a friend of other friends linked to the Foundation, such as the poet Aleixo. They all lived with Tóssan and we had a debt to him that had to be seized», explains Gabriel Gonçalves to Sul Informação.
To demonstrate the importance of the illustrator in this FLIQ, on the first day there is the conference “Tóssan: O Poeta do Absurdo”, at 18:30 pm, at the Foundation's Auditorium. It will be attended by Vasco Rosa, João Paulo Cotrim, writer and editor, and Jorge Silva, art designer, responsible for the book that brings together the illustrations from the Algarve. The moderation will be Dália Paulo, municipal director of the Loulé Chamber.
In this conference, Vasco Rosa will try to frame Tossán, who was also set designer at Teatro Lethes de Faro, «within a more Algarvean perspective». In other words: to explore «certain tradition and influence» that this illustrator drew from other renowned Algarve artists such as Bernardo Marques, from Silves, and Roberto Nobre, from São Brás de Alportel.
As for the rest of the FLIQ program, the highlight goes to the attribution of the Medal of Cultural Merit to Gastão Cruz, poet from Faro, in a ceremony that will count with the presence of Luís Castro Mendes, Minister of Culture.
It will be at 15:30 pm on Saturday, August 4th, and the award is “a high point that dignifies the Foundation”, stresses Gabriel Gonçalves. From the rest of the program, the presence of Rayma Suprani, cartoonist persecuted in Venezuela, for the presentation of “La Magia de Un Lapiz”, on Sunday 5th, at 15:00 pm.
“The program is intense and of great quality. We hope that it pleases people and that they come to visit us, because this is a different and special festival to show that the Algarve has the capacity to present a cultural program that is differentiating», concludes the president of the Foundation Manuel Viegas Guerreiro.
To consult the full FLIQ program, click here
Ode to Football, by Tóssan:
Green rectangle, half shade half sun
Twenty two in underwear playing football
Running, jumping, zigzagging to the sound of a whistle
A skinny man, also in underwear
And two more bald men with a flag
From here to there, from there to here
Ball in the center, ball out.
Out the referee!
And the crowd, from the pedestrian
screamed, screamed, gesticulated
And the poor ball rolled on the green
Rolled on foot, head to head
The ball doesn't lose, even a minute
Buzzing in the air like a beetle,
all round, all pretty
Dressed in leather.
The referee runs, the referee whistles
the audience screams
Gooooollllloooooo!
ball in the nets
Oranges, lollipops,
nonsense, profanity
Frantic, scrawny fat ladies
shrill screaming.
all in one all in one
The referee steals the whistle
Enter the guard, enter the police
The horses running, the gentlemen hiding
a head here, a foot there
Hips, thighs, legs, feet,
Heads on the ground, horse heads,
Horses without heads, feet in the air
There was a huge crowd.
And an excited lady who was married
With a distracted sailor,
In the middle of the bench that was at the wedge,
He took an eye out of her, with her own nail!
To the nail, to the nail!
High spirits!
And in the end,
the championship was lost
Poem published in ABola newspaper
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