There are six polluted  rivulets spaced an average of 150 meters of each other, three of which have a wider catchment area, though I believe that is only domestic waste.

I would like to get some idea if it’s possible to treat the water locally, and if it’s possible to do it in an environmental way , with reed beds for example, using the existing topography, and what kind of areas that would require.

Treating the sewage water would mitigate the foul smells specially strong in the summer months and work as a model on how to treat sewage at local scale without the requirement of large scale plants. It’s worth noting that the river Douro (which all this flows into) has closed  its fluvial beaches due to water pollution so these local measures would have a wider potential benefit.

[ image : Arquitectura Popular em Portugal]

[ image : Arquitectura Popular em Portugal]

[ image : Rui Monteiro April 1988 ]

“Everyone knows about fiction, but no one knows about reality.”

‘Double Agent’ is a current exhibition “of art works and collaborative projects in which the artist uses other people as a medium” Beyond the idea of using other people, the public, the key inspirations for my own project here came from what the collected works had to say about notions of truth, reality and opinion.

In general the works present an involvement with “other people” documented through video or display. However they also in most cases, and in a way not always immediately apparent, involve the audience of the exhibition. In many of the works, we worry about how the artist might have exploited, tricked or manipulated their public, for example in a series of lectures where the lecturer is in fact an avatar controlled remotely by the artist speaking in their ear. However, the double-layered nature of this particular project (two false lectures are presented simultaneously) makes me wonder after a while if I too am being presented with a false idea of the reality presented. Another project by Artur Zmijewski, shows four meetings where representatives of significant groups in Poland make their own banners to represent their beliefs, and are then allowed to alter each others’, with the whole process documented through digital video. Some uncomfortable situations occur, such as the Socialists branding the All-Polish Youth as nazi sympathisers, and the Catholics revealing a difficult relationship to homosexuality and womens’ rights. Watching the results, though, we wonder, having seen other works beforehand, whether what we are watching is documentary or fiction.

[images from Double Agent free leaflet]

I first wonder what a similar model might generate in Fontainhas: bringing together various interest groups and setting off a similar process. Here, the repeat performance is reminiscent of the work of Stephen Willets who interviews people, with the same set of questions, again and again at different times of the year and over large periods of time.

More than this, however, the exhibition has made me conscious of the responsibility I have placed on myself as a person aiming, with the best of intentions, to represent the currently underrepresented opinions of the people of Fontainhas. Inevitably, perhaps, my editing and presentation of honest conversations become fiction through their editing. Inevitably they serve my own agenda however indirectly.

Whenever I present my project to a group of people, the idea of mist tends to catch the imagination far more than other aspects of the project- the latter tending to be ‘true’ stories of cultural or personal situations. The mist becomes a vessel for a contagious fiction.

pp. 5, Scott, F: On Altering Architecture, 2008.

[Public Works fanzine cover]

The walk took in a number of existing green routes in East London which are to be incorporated in Design for London’s ‘Green Grid’ strategy – a means of connecting London’s green spaces in some kind of meaningful way. Torange began by talking about Sir Patrick Abercrombie’s County of London Plan of 1943, and its vision of being able to travel somehow from one’s own back yard to a complete experience of countryside, with the city in between serving to make this connection possible, and how this idea continues to inform London’s strategies and goals.

Along the way, we passed through a series of left-over, quirky spaces which are mostly invisible on plan and therefore unprogrammed even in such visionary schemes. This for me places importance not only on the professional’s responsibility to know their site, but more importantly on the value of local knowledge – walking the dog being in this case more important than knowing the plan.

A key point made here regarded how the ‘top-down’ strategy of the ‘Green Grid’ is practically crying out for organised action on the part of local or community groups.

Torange is a member of the Public Works artist/architect collective and is an architect. She has set up her own community group in relation to a local area of open space and felt it vital not to brand herself as an architect in meetings or presentations, but instead as the Chair or other official of the group. In her view, use of the term ‘architect’ would have placed her in a difficult expert position in relation to the place concerned, and moreover the group as a whole had more power as a unit than a loose gathering of expert professionals. In this instance, her professional knowledge helped her in research and in ‘phrasing things’ – the model is of the professional as a bridge between community and authority. There are interesting parallels here with the exhibition ‘Double Agent’ (link) at the ICA currently- which brings up issues of identity and truth in relation to the public or to communities.

Emphasis was placed very much on how a constituted or official group has extraordinary power when compared to a single individual or a loose group. Lucy Musgrave of General Public Agency suggested, as I understood it, that some form of case study documentation might be a useful ally in this present situation – not telling people what to do but providing useful and flexible information about things that have worked in the past.

The message really, I guess, is that the green dream can only be lived if it is dreamed of, and actively created, by the locals, who become participants in rather than recipients of the dream.

It was interesting for me to hear critiques of the ‘top-down’, strategic approach. In my understanding, the authority, though it may have a ‘top-down’ rather than ‘bottom-up’ approach, is different to that of Fontainhas where no such dream or aspiration seems to exist. Maybe such a strategic vision is needed in some level of government in order for ‘bottom up’ to be allowed a voice.

I want to test the viability of a community in the context of proposed ‘luxury’ changes by Porto’s regeneration agency. I am seeking ways to reinforce, re-establish and intensify the area’s character as a place of industry, pleasure, and close-knit communities. The existing flea market, disused factories, the presence of water & wild flora and a tendency towards agriculture may prove useful tools.”

[photo Helena Reis]

Calçada

substantivo feminino [noun, female]

1. arruamento cujo pavimento é revestido por pequenos elementos de um material duro;

[street layed with small elements of a hard material]

2. ladeira íngreme;

[steep slope]

Carquejeira

substantivo feminino [noun, female]

1. aquele que apanha ou vende carqueja

[the one that picks or sells Genista tridentata ]

[photo www.hoseito.com ]

Carqueja

substantivo feminine [noun, female]

1. BOTÂNICA planta subarbustiva, sem folhas, da família das Leguminosas, espontânea em Portugal e muito usada como acendalha ou combustível
[BOTANY shrub, without leaf, family of the leguminous plants, native to Portugal and often used as firelighters or fuel]

Corticeira

substantivo feminino [noun, female]

1. lugar onde se junta a cortiça para venda;

[place where cork is gathered to be sold]

[photo Helena Reis]

2             Is on the northern slope of the Douro’s river.
These are half demolished houses. We are under Porto’s mainline railway which runs the length of the area.

3             Last year I and a group of friends entered a competition organised by Porto Vivo, the development agency, for revitalising the riverfront of Porto. Our methodology was based upon ‘six degrees of separation’ a research study on the basis of conversation which led to a series of proposals for the riverfront, part of which includes the whole area of Fontainhas.

4             This is the contract I made for the free unit stating my intentions.
My main one was and is to apply the principles of our earlier competition entry to the particular community of Fontainhas.

5             This is what Fontainhas used to be in the 19th Century and beginning of the 20th. A romantic landscape.

6             And today a lush rocky nature intermingles with faded infrastructure and many dwellings.

7             But it isn’t just that. It’s a mythic and historic place in the population’s heart, Orvalhada ‘blessed mist’ is a summer solstice festival which takes place in Fontainhas and was stolen by the catholic church and turned into the city’s main festival, Sao Joao, still centred on F.

8             This is a photo of Fontainhas from my house in Porto. This is how it is perceived by the people of the city.

9             My past collaborators became friends of the project. I set up a system of postal correspondence so we could continue a conversation about Fontainhas. I also set up a blog for more informal and public dialogue.

10             Bairros & People
Fontainhas is divided into Bairros, quarters, which are intimate small scale communities. I have engaged with five of them, three of which are considered illegal of which all are in the Bonfim-administered end of the area. I started a dialogue and friendship with at least one person from each Bairro.

11             We were asked to make a gift to someone or something as part of our projects. I chose D. Belmira, a retired woman in Bairro no. 50 of Corticeira. This is her house. The bairro used to have 19 families. Today there are only four occupied houses.

12             “I never feel rain, I never feel wind, but I would like to have Sun in my life and a view out of my window.” Dona Belmira. My gift took two forms. The first was to help her overcome the bureaucracy involved in finding a new home.

13             The second part was to see if her existing home might be able to satisfy her needs.

14             HER NEEDS— – Provision of natural light – - Provision of toilet within the home — Reduction of ambient humidity in the home, particularly owing to her asthma. – A sense of community –
- More space. (currently lives in 21sqm)

Beyond D. Belmira, the project was a first test of more universal ways that could make Fontainhas continue to be viable to its existing residents, and also provide refurbished homes for new residents.

15             This week the winner of the earlier riverfront competition was announced.
It wasn’t us, but more importantly it was a highly corporate and uncontextual scheme.
“Creation of LUXURY housing associated with a leisure zone and a playground on river’s front with a marine. Also network lifts should be provided to connect level split . A public-private investment of 18.7 millions Euros.”

This winner gave me a new energy to the current project in Fontainhas.

The idea of luxury is I feel dangerous in this context.

16             LUXURY here means:

Removing the existing community

Removing or overwriting culture

Compromising Porto’s goal of maintaining a viable mixed community in the centre.

17             All along my project has been about maintaining and revitalising what Fontainhas already is. Now in the context of the threat of luxury it has become clear to me that Fontainhas needs to form a unified and singular stance as a specific community in the context of Porto. The current proposal is to form a single parish of Fontainhas, and to delineate a project which a non-bureaucratic kind of Parish, a multiuse facility which embraces current disused pottery manufactory site, a café, a library, a practical learning centre, a forum, a maybe even a mist catcher….

[photo: Svetlana Podoprigora]

We began in the shadow of the raised carriageway just east of Guindais. I stood on one of the Portuguese ‘love seats’, set into the low stone retaining wall and gave a brief introduction to what we would see. These love seats, it can be surmised, are a leftover from Fontainhas’ past of romanticism and leisure. We would do a promenade, a relatively aimless wander, through a place aimlessly wandered through by very few.

The idea of a bairro was easily expressed by no. 50 Corticeira, a single number (50) and a flight of stairs leading down- not to a single home but to a cluster of them, gathered around a series of small terraces, steps and courtyards.

It was remarkable to stand in the wash house beneath the Dom. Infante bridge and talk about natural springs. Some students peered into the concrete tanks with the air of public health inspectors. It was unfortunate that the facility was not being used and therefore felt a little too much like archaeology.

[photo: Svetlana Podoprigora]

We pressed on downhill, past another natural spring which wet the feet, to the Nicolau bairro. By this point I felt a little wary as the head of a large group of people wandering these intensely private, two-foot wide passageways. The overhanging front porches and doorways of homes felt a little too close, the artificial snap of digital cameras a little too regular. These latter were soon overcome by a row of barking dogs, all restrained by rope or behind fencing, all defending different properties. Without a map it would be impossible to tell which ones. A woman from above took advantage of my temporary disorientation to tell us the way out, and we squeezed through the path that follows the still-active railway line. I may have been the only one sorry that a train didn’t pass. Others were disbelieving that we were allowed to stand so close to the tracks – this was one instance of the group being regularly unsure of whether or not we should continue down a given path- the feeling of privacy, or rather of a lack of easy thoroughfare, is acute.

We climbed to the railway bridge, hemmed in by steel since its starring role in Aniki Bobo. Cameras popped at homes snugly cuddled up to the high-speed railway, gathered by the playground, and descended again via the Escadas de Aguada- another location from Aniki Bobo, which provided a good excuse to describe the area as portrayed in the film, rough grass as there is still, a place of escape from the Ribeira district. Cameras popped excitedly again as we went under the large arch supporting the railway lines above us. Again I found the scale change surprising- ruined houses revealed tiny squares of linoleum or tiling, no more than a couple of metres across but bearing all the hallmarks of a home.

I think it was universally agreed that the house cantilevered over a rock over the valley, adjacent to the tracks, was the most wanted holiday home. Some brave souls went down the steps of death beside and around it in order to take photos from below and investigate further.

It started to rain as we descended the final steps, the drop punctuated again by splashes of water across the stone steps.

David Knight

Stewart Home presented a linear narrative of, literally, psychogeography after situationism. This lecture took place in the blank, soundless spaces of a remake Home had produced of a Situationist film which alternates between light & voice and dark & silence. Home’s remake, funnily enough in the spirit of a Hollywood remake of European arthouse cinema, was in colour, so used the colour bars of digital video instead of blanket white.

Home’s view of psychogeography embraced detournement, another Situationist tactic which involved reversing, twisting, or corrupting an existing image, object, or process. One example of this that came up was the work of an Italian group who all collectively used the name ‘Luther Blissett’ in order to create works of art and literature, including a whole novel which has been internationally published. The fame of Luther Blissett was engineered through convincing the Italian media of his disappearance whilst cycling the word ‘Art’ by joining lines through European cities. A documentary team visited Britian, where the fictional persona had apparently been living, and Stewart Home, his best friend, took them to a house on the Isle of Dogs and told them stories of his friend’s life there.

This particular home was being demolished as part of the clearance of certain areas of the Docklands at the time. It belonged, in actual fact, to a man named Richard Essex who had re-established the semi-fictional London Psychogeographical Association and was obsessed with a ley-line running through the Isle of Dogs and connecting to the shape of a pyramid made by expanding the lines of the summit of Canada Tower. The ley-line, in this frame of reference, took on life as a kind of ‘axis of evil’, particularly as it coincided with the physical locations of various BNP activists and events.

In a way the ley-line, however fictional, formed a way of talking about actual tendencies and political movements. It all sounds a bit silly, but I was quite taken with the idea of a non-tangible but somehow real interconnection between related things. And also, that this might be readable in the landscape.

My investigations in Fontainhas have had a similar character. Things that I have been told don’t exist, or don’t relate to anything, often seem to do just that. The springs, for example, are evident across the site even though people don’t seem to believe this to be true. Meanwhile, many of the stories I receive from Fontainhas residents don’t quite ring true in the landscape – there is no evidence for them and perhaps they belong to mythology and romance more than literal truth- and nothing wrong with that because in a way it becomes true.

I want my understanding of Fontainhas to display a similar generosity of spirit to that expressed by Home in this lecture: a willingness to embrace fiction, intangible but palpable relationships, and storytelling.