Alcoutim's itinerary “Saramago Literary Route in the Algarve” will be presented on Friday, September 8th, at 14:45 pm, at the Carlos Brito Municipal Library – Casa dos Condes, in this municipality in the interior of the Algarve, announced the Regional Directorate of Culture of the Algarve (DRCAlg), promoter of the initiative.
On the same day, the inauguration of the photographic exhibition “Photographic Trip to the Algarve” will take place, a project by the association 1/4 Escuro, Association of Amateur Photographers of Vila Real de Santo António (VRSA), supported by DRCAlg, and carried out in collaboration with the José Saramago Foundation, and the Algarve Tourism Region.
This exhibition has already visited Vila Real de Santo António, Castro Marim, Lepe (Huelva – Spain), Olhão and Tavira, and will cover all the municipalities that make up the “Saramago Literary Route in the Algarve”.
In Alcoutim, the initiative is supported by the City Council, as part of the Municipal Festival celebrations.
José Saramago enters the Algarve from Mértola, in Alentejo.
«When the traveler entered Alcoutim, he saw a round and massive castle overlooking the hill, looking more like an amputated tower than a complex military construction. Given the breadth of the view, it would be worth going up there, he thought. It was not. He thought, mistaken by the perspective, that the mountain was still in Portuguese territory. After all, to get there you would have to cross the Guadiana, hire a boatman, show a passport, and that would be a different trip. On the other side is Sanlúcar and another speak. But the two towns, placed above the water, will see themselves as a mirror of each other, the same whiteness of the houses, the same nativity scenes. In laughter and tears, the difference should not be great either” writes the Nobel Prize winner about his arrival in Alcoutim, in the work Viagem a Portugal (1981).
Diego Mesa, author of the “Rota Literária Saramago no Algarve”, when traveling through the places visited by Saramago, 40 years later, inspired by the words of the Nobel Prize for Literature, «finds the same charms in Alcoutim, a village that maintains its identity, its genuineness , where time allows meetings, enjoying the landscapes, flavors and smells found in places where human activities respect the surrounding nature, preserving in the short but also in the long term, with the objective of economically and socially efficient development equitable and ecologically sustainable», according to DRCAlg.
«These projects are an opportunity to publicize a territory that has inspired several writers, namely the places, monuments, landscapes, flavors and people, but also to promote the Algarve as a literary tourism destination», adds the same entity.
The motto for creating the itineraries of the “Rota Literária Saramago no Algarve”, promoted by DRCAlg, «was the desire to reflect on the territory: if that was the Algarve seen, in 1980, by José Saramago, what will the Algarve be like now? ?».
The challenge for the photographers participating in the project was to visit the aforementioned Algarve municipalities and be inspired, photographically, by the texts written by José Saramago during his visit to the Algarve. The Algarve photographer, André Boto, distinguished by the FEP – Federation of Professional European Photographers as “European Photographer of the Year” in 2023, participates in the project with the photography of Silves and with the editing of the remaining photographs selected for the exhibition.
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