the street is our gallery

Last September a great festival took place in Estarreja, Portugal. It was organized by ESTAU together with Estarreja Town hall. It took place from the 10th – 18th September officially, but unoficcially, it was more than 17 days of conversations, movies, walls, workshops and tour guides. The organization, Lara Seixo Rodrigues, gave the feedback to us and share some of the art work that was made during the festival which was a huge success.

In ESTAU we had walls of big, medium and small dimensions, small characters installations, conferences, movies, workshops, tour guides and a great atmosphere. The city was invaded by enthuiasm and received with open arms by showing a big adhesion like never before.

ESTAU highlights the number of the programmed tours: 3 programmed ones and 3 more requested by local schools, more than 230 people, and workshops completely full with participants from the north and center of Portugal.

Locals have shown the appreciation to the artists by thanking them directly and offering them gifts and to the organization. They claim that ESTAU has changed forever Estarreja.

From the artists side, the feedback couldn’t be better, they highlight the format of the festival, and the reception from the locals that got them to know the city of Estarreja through dinners, museum tours and city tours.

The eviroment surrounding the artists was so good that the artist, the Argentine Bosoletti and the Polish NeSpoon, made some extras works in the city that were not programmed.

The feedback was so good that they were news in Brazil, Poland and Germany, that even brought a German couple visiting, on purpose, the festival.

Lara also mentions: “And as ESTAU is for everyone, the more than 30 activities that are part of the program (permanent and parallel) of different artistic areas, in different formats and levels of participation, aim to respond to a heterogeneous audience, both in respect of interests, as ages or gender.

Among these, bare in mind the following highights:

– The presence of talented and recognized international urban artists such as Australian FINTAN MAGEE, Brazilian BICICLETA SEM FREIO, Polish NESPOON or Argentine BOSOLETTI, very well accompanied by the best national talent, as KRUELLA D’ENFER or HAZUL;
– The ARTISTIC RESIDENCY weaving, for which defied the GUR to join the House of Loom, to work together on the graphic proposal of an urban artist, revisiting this way an important local tradition;
– The WORKSHOPS set for all public and / or ages: stencil, illustration for children, performance and urban art for the elderly (LATA 65);
– The only time it will be the concert / performance FILHO DA MÃE, illustrated at the time and a wall by illustrator CLÁUDIA GUERREIRO (recognized as the bass player Linda Martini);
– Guided tours with sign language interpreter;
– Premieres and ante-premiere international FILMS, who have the background of the theme of Urban Art, as ‘Graffiti Grandmas’ (Norway, 2016) or ‘Sky’s the limit’ (France, 2016);
– The INSTAMEET community-driven NOW PORTO (@nowporto).

In addition to the permanent and parallel activities open to the general public, the ESTAU, through its CARE program, will lead the artists invited to get to know the countless and yet (much) unknown Natural Heritage, Historic, Architectural and Gastronomic Estarreja .”

Here are some photos:

Overall the festival was a huge success and we will see it again next year.

ESTAU facebook page

Thank you Lara for the feedback

Tomás Cardoso / ISSA