PINHOLE CIRCULATION < LAC - Laboratório de Actividades Criativas

PINHOLE CIRCULATION

Heritage through the eye of the needle is a LAC project that aims to value – rediscovering and reinventing the imagery of Stenopeic Photography – a diverse horizon of classified buildings of recognized historical, architectural and cultural importance, as well as developing and preserving this primordial technique of photographic record, which asserts itself in the creative panorama of contemporary photography due to its unique conceptual and formal qualities, unattainable in any other way. With the realization of large-sized pinhole photographs, it is intended to enhance the identity elements and bearers of collective memories, of which the entire built heritage is part: in this perspective, it is intended to preserve the heritage, contribute to the territorial qualification and formation of publics , through artistic creation.

This project comes in the logical sequence of numerous training activities, artistic creation and research in the field of pinhole photography developed by LAC. Since 2009, large-scale images of some monuments in Lagos have been taken, resulting from the adaptation of a closed box truck to a mobile photographic camera, creating monochrome images with about 3.15m in length and 1.10m in height.

Pinhole photography, commonly known as pinhole photography, is a technique through which photographs are taken without the aid of lenses, that is, where light enters a darkroom through a small hole.

In 2015, we started the HERITAGE THROUGH THE NEEDLE HOLE project, which aimed to take large-scale stenopeic photographic records, intending to enhance classified buildings of recognized historical, architectural and cultural importance from a comprehensive and significant range of built heritage in Portugal.

For two years, the built heritage of the following Portuguese locations was registered: Lisbon, Évora, Mourão, Elvas, Paderne, Sagres, Lindoso, Porto, Braga, Guimarães, Santa Maria da Feira, Batalha, Almourol, Buçaco, Penedono, Bragança, Almeida, Trancoso, Aguiar da Beira, Linhares da Beira, Sabugal, Sortelha, Belmonte and Castelo Novo. The entire process was documented and can be consulted on the page www.pinholelab.blogspot.com

This record resulted in a collection of 21 large photographs in an exhibition format, which has already been shown at the Centro Cultural de Lagos and at the Centro Português de Fotografia, in Porto.

Naturally, we intend to continue to give visibility to these rare photographs for their beauty, thus holding national and international exhibitions. We also seek to establish partnerships with entities in order to enhance and promote Portuguese heritage and culture.

This project is part of the European directives for the constitution of cultural programming and its privileged areas, with export potential, combining various productions, equipment and cultural and artistic spaces with each other, in the valorization of identity elements and bearers of collective memories, of which all the built heritage is part of it: in this perspective, the intention is to preserve the heritage, contribute to the territorial qualification and formation of publics, through artistic creation. The General Directorate of Cultural Heritage recognized the relevant interest of the project presented.

Exhibition PATRIMÓNIO ATRAVÉS DO BURACO DA AGULHA, at Palácio Nacional da Ajuda in the rooms D. João IV and the Ambassadors from 01 to 31 March.

This exhibition includes a selection of 10 photographs of classified buildings, under the supervision of the DGPC – General Directorate of Cultural Heritage, with approx. 110cmx300cm, between direct negatives, direct positives and contact positives, on paper and photographic film, from among the 35 photographs that were taken throughout the entire project, recorded in 25 locations in Portugal between Sagres and Bragança, rediscovering several monuments classified through of long photographic exposures without the aid of lenses (stenopeic photography, commonly known as pinhole photography), where light enters a darkroom through a small hole, projecting an image of the outside inside.