The United Nations estimate that by 2050 about two thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas. The acceleration of demographic growth and the increasing population concentration has been presenting complex problems to our cities. Centres of intense cultural and economic exchange, cities also produce and accentuate countless social and environmental injustices. As the living laboratories in which major crises ferment and detonate, they are also the source of human inventiveness from which can emerge answers to our problems, those that will trigger the cultural changes we need.
It was thus framed that, in 2020, Bienal’21 Fotografia do Porto made an open call — sponsored by BPI – Fundação “La Caixa” and in collaboration with PHotoESPAÑA — for the production of the exhibition “Cidades na Cidade”, and selected two artists to develop their own photographic projects, focusing on urban community initiatives in the field of social and environmental justice.
The two projects - O Visível Vê-se Até ao Fim, by Carlos Barradas; and Cabanyal Horta: O Jardim Comestível, by María Sainz Arandia - were developed between January and March 2021, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing. During the process of creating and producing the exhibition, the artists were accompanied by curators Maíra Villela and Virgílio Ferreira. The structures for the exhibition were designed by Nuno Pimenta and produced by ArtWorks from industrial waste and other reused materials, contributing for a circular economy and the best management of our resources. A way to promote sustainability in artistic production.
