O Futuro como Aventura

THE FUTURE AS AN ADVENTURE
Text by Ana João Romana and Isabel Baraona

A series of postcards published by Ernesto de Sousa, entitled The Past as an Adventure (1978), was the inspiration for a collaborative work between Ana João Romana and Isabel Baraona, involving 35 artists and collectives. This work, a series of postcards, was exhibited at the Círculo de Artes Plásticas de Coimbra and sent via CTT (Portuguese postal service) to a large number of recipients. In the introduction to Artists’ Postcards from 1960 to Now, about the collection of artists' postcards held at the British Museum in London, Jeremy Cooper clearly explains that each postcard is an original idea and not an illustration, and says that if you own one of these postcards, you own an original artwork by this artist*.

As lovers and creators of artist's books and multiples, we consider that the postcard, despite its modest format, is an opportunity to express a poetic idea and, perhaps, also a medium for political manifestos. But, above all, as Michael Bracewell says, every postcard describes a world; and every postcard bought or sent appears to promise a friendly gesture – the desire to share a moment’s closeness with its recipient.

If we return to this title that combines future and adventure, it is because we, Ana and Isabel, as visual artists and teachers, are interested in bringing together artists of different generations and experiences, weaving connections between those who were our teachers and these young people we met at ESAD.CR. In creating a new series of postcards, we also emphasize our interest in expanding the concept of exhibition; we want it to be an experience that extends in space and time, with the postcards being sent via the postal service. In open dialogue, we want to continue exploring possibilities for encounters between artists and diverse audiences.

At the invitation of the Communication and Culture Cooperative, we organized two exhibitions that come together under this theme, but are divided into two spaces: the Contemporary Culture Center 9 & 13. In the Contemporary Culture Center 9, the main building, we used the exhibition space as an editorial space where we could see, read, browse, edit, and even distribute a collection of publications produced since 2010 within the context of the Artist's Book course unit of the Bachelor's Degree in Visual Arts. This course explores different book structures, collective projects such as the Edições da Sala 5, and individual publishing projects, always prioritizing the learning trilogy: hands on, minds on, hearts on (learning by doing, doing while thinking, and thinking while getting involved).

This exhibition is divided into three chapters. In Chapter I, books published by current and former students of ESAD.CR can be seen. In Chapter II, the exhibition becomes a collaborative publishing space —
— We invite visitors to choose the works that are displayed on the gallery walls, taken here as blank pages; the visitor participates as editor and curator. All the works available for this publishing proposal in the space were conceived by students for the publication Edições da Sala 5, a collective assembling project carried out since 2011 in the context of the Artist's Book course. In Chapter III, the postcard collection The Future as Adventure, published this academic year in a partnership between second-year undergraduate and second-year master's students in Visual Arts, is available for free distribution. The postcards published by the graduating class were conceived by the students: Alexandra Camacho, Alice Batella, Anne Calderón, Eva Jasiulyte, Ritz, Gago, Andreia Domingos, Filipa Emauz, Gediminas Rydelis, Inês Oliveira, Inês Pinheiro, Jo, Joana Ferreira, José Sopa Laranjeira, Lara Domingos, Leonor Bento, Beatriz Coelho, Maria Camacho, Matilde Fernandes, Miriam Durães, Solonur, Teresa Pessoa and Tomás Fernandes. Thus we celebrate
14 years of publications by students in the Artist's Book discipline.

The Center for Contemporary Culture 13 welcomes a heterogeneous group of students currently in their second year of the Master's in Visual Arts. Nine talented people with different backgrounds and knowledge, who meet here in fruitful conversation: Álvaro Nogueira and Margarida Moreira Martins are graduates in Product Design and Ceramics (ESAD.CR); Rubi Gamallo holds a degree in Graphic Design (ESAD.CR); Inês Santos, João Soares, and Maria Manuel hold degrees in Fine Arts (ESAD.CR); Rui Anastácio holds a Bachelor's degree in Cultural Programming and Production (ESAD.CR); Fredrik Robens holds a degree in Visual Arts from the University of Madeira and in Fine Arts from the Polytechnic University of Valencia; and Helena Valsecchi is an artist with an already established career.

2024, this time of change resembles another time of change, 1974. May the future be a promising adventure. In 1976, for an exhibition by Helena Almeida at the Módulo Gallery, Ernesto de Sousa wrote about "realizing oneself" and "making individual creativity and the cr coincide".

"The world's creativity." Ernesto ends the text with an invitation:
now and here
it's a sign of hope and increases the desire
to do the math again
shall we start again?***

*COOPER, Jeremy. (2019) The World Exists to be put on a Postcard, Artists’ postcards from 1960 to now. London: Thames & Hudson / British Museum.
** BRACEWELL, Michael. (2011) The Postcard Art of Gilbert & Georges 1972-1989. The Postcard Culture, Postcard Pieces, Titled Postcards Pictures. Munich: DelMonico Books/Prestel. *** Text for the homonymous exhibition
by Helena Almeida, Galeria Módulo (Porto), June-July 1976