Spontaneous Art Movement – AtelierSER” is a project of two Portuguese artists, Bruno and Diogo. They act as a spontaneous collective and they are a creative movement of relational action.
Their ‘street’ workshop is based on pro-active public space, sustainability, and community-based activities. Atelier SER propose is the voluntary participation, sharing the exciting experience of art making process.
The creative act enlarges and transforms the process of thinking about society and our collective memory.
Lets see who’s behind the Atelier SER. Bruno and Diogo both have a degree in fine arts. They studied at the same university in Portugal and after graduation their baths separated; Bruno went to London and worked as an assistant for sculptor and Diogo did etchings etc. in Lisbon. After ten years the reunited again and rejoined their artistical skills and developed Atelier SER –project. The project had its premiere in 2016 on a day that Portuguese celebrate their liberty. Bruno and Diego see their project as part of cultural, social and even political movement that encourages participants to think their surroundings in a different way and also providing participants a new way to be a part of the local community and even develop the community.
The Fringe Festival wasn’t a total stranger to these men, they had just their show in Goteborg, Sweden before coming to Finland. Both said that the Nordic Fringe Network and its’ joined artist call made it possible to plan their tour so that they could participate in both festivals. Also Fringe concept enables Bruno and Diego to take their art where it normally isn’t allowed.
About financing the tour – they received funding from Calouste Gulbenkian Fundation for international co-operation and internationalization of their art. When asked if the funding was enough both men go silent for the first time during the interview. An odd situation since they both have been such an easy pair to interview, talk and laughter just bubbles out of them. Well, the funding enables the travel and accommodation expenses but isn’t enough to develop their art. So I ask how would they change their project and and both reply immediately – that they would like to document their talks with people and make a video of each city that they stop by.
Then about Lahti Fringe Festival and how has it gone for you in Lahti? The reactions from locals have varied from a very shy to talkative encounters. Also the Finnish weather didn’t make their job easy – so Bruno and Diogo wondered if shopping centers and mall could provide accessible meeting points for people to interact.
Special thanks for Bruno and Diogo goes to a bus driver who helped them and also to all that participated in their art work!
The future, both men hope that they will find funding so that they can expand there are and document it better by videos and painting from each city, that would allow them to study how the answers vary though out the cities.