Enquanto Houver Um Folião na Rua...

As long as there are revelers in the streets...

It is with the greatest pleasure that I write the introductory note to this exhibition by Vanessa Éffe, not only because the Torres Vedras Carnival holds great personal significance for me, but essentially because of my friendship with the author of these illustrations, who was not born in Torres Vedras, but is already as much, or even more, part of this land than so many others who were born here.

Regarding the Carnival itself, there is not much to say, except to reinforce its unifying role as the greatest cultural and community manifestation of Torres Vedras – that centripetal force that brings people together and makes them believe that, at least while the Carnival lasts, we are all one and the same body: the body of the reveler.

More than mere revelry, Carnival is a set of precepts, a set of details. To the outsider, these conventions may seem enigmatic at first glance, but for locals and true connoisseurs of this festival, each one signifies something deeply rooted in the cultural and symbolic identity of this city (at this time of year, more feared than the Gaulish village in Asterix...).

This collection of illustrations, besides reminding us of some of the most emblematic figures of our Carnival, presents the observer with some micro-narrative proposals. In each image, a story is insinuated, one of those unusual and outlandish stories that happen during Carnival and remain within that Carnival, like a well-kept secret.

In Vanessa Éffe's style and in this collection of works, what is considered the most Portuguese of all Carnivals is very well represented. In these illustrations, the author, with her characteristic humor, paints a very personal picture of that Carnival which has the viral power to infect everyone, making us fall into a kind of vertigo, right inside that convulsive magma of bodies in agitation and revelry...

"As long as there are revelers in the street, Carnival continues," they say, and who are we to disagree...?