ESTRATO . EXTRATO
PERMANENT SCULPTURE IN THE PUBLIC SPACE
1700x820x100cm
Yellow Granite, Granite of Paradança, Schist, Lousa, Quartzite, Black Limestone, Iron bar.
Álvaro Oliveira, Cláudia Campos, Gustavo Romeiro, Inês Mesquita, Maria Guimarães, Miguel Teodoro, Rita Rodrigues, Rodrigo Machado, Rui Mota.
MONDIM DE BASTO 2019
Photos: ©Gustavo Romeiro

Estrato Extrato arises from a series of experiences, interactions and influences inherent to the territory and to the inhabitants of Mondim de Basto, which the authors intended to incorporate, in this public intervention, for the 1st Mondim de Basto Granite Symposium, 2019. It is made up of apparently abstract compositions, made up of volumes of the most varied Mondim de Basto cliffs and iron structures. The largest volume, which is constituted as a compositional centre, has a carved staircase, placed in the direction of Monte Farinha, which allows access to a higher plane in which a privileged reading of the surrounding elements is possible. The latter are assumed as cartographic correspondents, referenced to Monte Farinha, identifying, through their positions and materials, the parishes of Mondim de Basto. Each element is made up of a geologically characteristic fragment of the respective village. Surrounded by each element, the iron rods draw structures inspired by the drawings/symbols of the cave drawings, found in archaeological remains of the region. The landscape of each locality is evoked, allowing the map to be physically fulfilled, proposing in it, the union of diversity that the Mondim de Basto council offers. Each stone taken from the landscape was accompanied by an intervention with lime, which derives from the experience of the place in question. Lime, besides being little evasive to the landscape, is inherent to Mondim’s history, by the extraction that was once carried out. The gesture of returning this matter to the landscape, together with the collection of stone extracts, connects the site of implementation of the installation with the entire territory of the municipality. In this installation, which completes the 1st Mondim de Basto Granite Symposium, 2019, the landscape of each location is evoked, allowing the map to be physically fulfilled, proposing in it, the union of diversity that the Mondim de Basto council offers. Both stone and iron, despite their rigid materials, add to the project a marked temporality. Estrato Extrato is composed thinking poetically of its ruin. The accumulation of lichen, rust and the way each composition emerges from the ground enhances the relationship between the pieces and space. Its progressive mutation allows the spatial experience to be continuously transmuted after the moment of implementation.
