«Portobello explores the phenomenon of summer tourism and the iconographic imagery associated with it». This is how the photographer Patrícia Almeida frames the exhibition which, this Monday, May 13th, at 19 pm, will be inaugurated at Teatro das Figuras, as a result of the partnership established between the Serralves Foundation and the Municipality of Faro.
«Patrícia Almeida – Portobello» is precisely the title of the exhibition, which is part of a program of exhibitions and presentation of works from the Serralves Collection specifically selected for the exhibition sites, with the aim of making its collection accessible to a wide range of audiences. the regions of the country.
Patrícia Almeida (Lisbon, 1970-2017) «has built an absolutely unique body of work in the context of Portuguese photography, through series that address themes and subjects as diverse as the relationship of individuals with urban spaces, the connection between music and youth, or the precariousness in the years of the deep economic crisis that devastated Portugal between 2008 and 2013», explains the Serralves Foundation.
Among these series, «one of the ones that most contributed to the dissemination of his work was undoubtedly Portobello, carried out on several visits to the Algarve between 2006 and 2007».
In the words of the photographer, «Portobello explores the phenomenon of summer tourism and the iconographic imagery associated with it, whose institutional promotion based on marketing techniques addresses the idea of territory in terms of 'place-brand'. A place to be (not to live or visit), to experience, consume, for a week or two. Portobello It thus presents itself as a place on the verge of fiction, simultaneously real and invented, a kind of 'theme park' without a theme, but anchored in a collective imagination related to the holidays and built from stereotypes. As a documentary project, Portobello it is also presented as a photographic essay on how the flows of temporary occupation generated by summer tourism influence the construction of a place's identity».
This was the project that ensured Patrícia Almeida greater visibility: after her presentation at Galeria Zé dos Bois (ZDB, Lisbon), in 2008, and the following year, at the second edition of Allgarve, the photographer was nominated for this series photo for the BesPhoto 2009 Award.
This is, therefore, the second time that Patrícia Almeida exhibits in the Algarve region, after having presented, in 2009, a set of works, under the motto "Estranhas Formas de Vida", also having the Algarve as a motive, at the Convento de Santo António, in Loulé, as part of the Allgarve program.
The exhibition «Patrícia Almeida – Portobello», produced by the Serralves Foundation/Museum of Contemporary Art, in Porto, will be open to the public from the 14th to the 21st of December.
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