“Preencher o vazio” open studio displaying the work three artists have been doing during their residency at Raizvanguarda over the month of July.

Marisol Maza, an artist from Mexico, will show a video of herself walking and doing crochet in the streets of Bordeiro. The crochet, a once popular activity, used to link Portuguese women together. The activity is now disappearing because of the loss of interest in younger generations. In her work, Marisol Maza is using the action of walking as a symbolic drawing in the public space.

Virginie Fillion, from Canada, will display screen prints and pages of an artist book that expresses the challenges of losing her roots when moving abroad. She uses images from different countries around the World, and streets of Gois, pairing them with thoughts written in a journal over a two years period.

The two artists have been working together on an intervention project that took place in the streets of Bordeiro. Using leftover material from an old paper factory, they build temporary structures in abandoned houses and documented them. The work emphasis the population decrease due to the migration to bigger cities, and the opportunities for artists to develop projects in such villages.

Lidiya Stanchenko, a writer from Russia, will be performing her short story called “The Storyteller’s Notes”. The story, written in Bordeiro, is about a storyteller woman who, once realized she was a writer, started walking along villages, telling her stories to people who needed them. The story rises questions such as: What does it mean to be a woman and a writer? How do society treats a woman writer? How does she feel about it?