A VISIT TO THE TORRE NEIGHBOURHOOD IN CASCAIS
Otávio Raposo, Lígia Ferro, Pedro Varela, Beatriz Lacerda e Mateus Sadock
21st September 2023
We arrived at the Torre neighbourhood and the Take.it project around 12.30pm. We were asked to pick up lunch from "Mum's" house. We went to the block where she lives with her son Lenin, and they both told us that the food was ready to be loaded. The rich and delicious “cachupa”, prepared by "Mamã", was taken and served in the old primary school that now serves as the headquarters of the Take.it project.
The space is very well organised, divided into different activities: bookshelves with an eclectic collection of books, a desk and administrative area, sports equipment, a panel advertising job vacancies by area, various posters with neighbourhood initiatives or of a preventive nature, an equipped kitchen, sofas, table football and a music studio. One poster stood out: "Because if it was me today, it could be you tomorrow!", followed by instructions on how to deal with police violence.
We had lunch in the company of Elber, Lenin and more young people came along to join us around the family size pot that was the centrepiece of the Take.it gathering. "Mum" then joined us, accompanied by a two-year-old girl who was in her care, and we socialised in the outdoor courtyard, where she showed us the neighbourhood's community garden. She cut small pieces of sugar cane from it, which she shared with everyone present. At 2.30pm, Robz, a neighbourhood resident and Take.it technician, returned to take us on one of the Torre's famous street art tours.
The story of the street art murals in the Torre neighbourhood began in 2016. According to Robz, this initiative began as a partnership between the local authorities and young people from the neighbourhood, through a mapping of the sites to be revitalised. Artists were invited to make street art interventions on the facades of the buildings based on a dialogue with the residents, the history of the neighbourhood and local experiences. In 2018, the same young people made their debut at the Festival do Infinito (Festival of the Infinity), where every year, eight interventions take place over eight days.
For almost two hours, Robz continued with stories about the project, the festival and the neighbourhood itself. From the generational tensions that have been diluted in the collective involvement of the murals, to the new forms of interaction with the municipality. Since then, the dynamics of sociability and the processes of local identification have undergone significant transformations, with an increase in the external valorisation of the territory and the effects of urban gentrification.
There have already been several editions of the Festival do Infinito with new murals that are constantly being updated and in dialogue with the ways of life of the Torre neighbourhood, and other places that have been brought together through the growing and international network of artists and audiences who have become aware of these dynamics.
"It's been a process of co-responsibility," says Robz, where the participation and decision-making of young residents is just as important as their commitment. As he puts it, "If before we were the guys who vandalised the neighbourhood, now we're the ones who regenerate it," as he stresses the importance of involving young people in local initiatives, such as the recent renovation of the children's playground. In these years of artistic and community intervention with internal learning, the value of the collective and self-organised participation of residents is indicative of new paths of emancipation, in which young people from the peripheries are central actors of change.
This first incursion by several members of the extended PERICREATIVITY team allowed us to understand the dynamics of youth participation on the outskirts of Lisbon. Urban art initiatives are central to this process, leveraging relationships with the City Council and other local protagonists. We're keen to go back and see how these young people's projects develop. The Lisbon team will be back very soon!
Contact for street art visit via instagram: @rvarela7 / @inifinitofestival