This photographic project, still in development, began with an artist residency in 2023 at Hangar, an artistic research center, in Lisbon. I embarked on this project with the aim of returning to the Horta Nova neighborhood in Carnide, Lisbon, where I grew up and where I haven't lived for about seven years.
Returning home equipped with a camera and the desire to capture what makes this place unique for me, it quickly became apparent the importance of portraying those who watched me grow, as well as the corners, cafés, and gardens where we ran and shared moments together.
The Horta Nova neighborhood, a social housing area nestled next to the economically and infra-structurally growing areas of Carnide and Telheiras, at times resembles a thorn in the foot of this political and economic system of constant growth, one that can never seem to remove or abandon it.
The Horta Nova City project aims to be a tribute to those who inhabit and have inhabited this geographical space, where time insists on moving slowly and in circles.
This work it´s my first long term project and I´m really looking forward to see how it will look in some years.
Odair Monteiro
In 2013 Attended the Dramatic Expression course at Chapitô, Lisboa
He is co-founder of the collective Gmurda, which develops its artistic practice around video and performance, since 2012.
In 2014 he participated in the artistic residency Som e Ruína, with the collective Gmurda, in the South and Center of Portugal
In 2019, he participated in the artistic residency Catchupa Factuary in Cape Verde
In 2020 he attended the Master in artistic photography at the Institute of Cultural Production and Image, Porto
In 2021, he participated in the artistic residency “From a Distance Calling” at Hangar, Centro de Investigação Artística. Lisbon
In 2022, he attended the initiation course to cinema in 16mm, taught by the cultural cooperative Rua Escura, Porto.
His most recent work includes participation in the group exhibitions “Unearting Memories”- Porto 2019 / “Portrait Show”-
Johannesburg 2020 / “Family Maters”- Maputo 2020 / “Dissident Planets” online exhibition 2020 / “No Work” Porto 2021 /
“Our (Spatial) Stories Live In Performative Futures” - Lisbon 2022 / “Intimate to political: a collective avatar”_ Coletivo
InterStruct - Porto 2022 / “Drifts and Creatures — New acquisitions from the Municipal Art Collection” - Porto 2023
Currently working in a photobook “Abandonado Abandonado” that will be release in April 2024.
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