Cavaquinho img 4

This is image 4-  the making of of Project Cavaquinho. A cavaquinho is, in fact, an originally Portuguese small string instrument of the European guitar family with four wire or gut strings.  Later became  an important instrument in Brazilian music, especially for samba. It has lately been incredibly used for the bossa nova (huh? Yes! Against all expectations). Structurally, pretty similar to the ukelele (which in fact descends from the cavaquinho), but different, as there are significant differences among cavaquinhos from different regions of Portugal.

This work in which I was involved for some months, culminated in an important and unique national itinerant show entitled "70 Cavaquinhos 70 Artistas", organized by the Cavaquinho Museum, based in Lisbon, Portugal. The idea behind the creation of such a museum and association, in  2013,  aimed to document, preserve and promote the history of this unique instrument. As part of this project, 70 Portuguese artists were invited by master Júlio Pereira, a well known musician for the use of the most traditional instruments, to make a plastic intervention in one of the instruments. The whole thing culminated in an amazing show, national and itinerant, involving the artistic languages of 70 artists. This is an amazing initiative and I've been present in most of the exhibition's openings, feeling completely in awe and kind of proud to be part of it. It's amazing on how such diversity of artistic languages seem to breathe so well together in the same physical place. The first of this shows took place in Jeronimos Monastery, in Lisbon, and then it went to most important cities, both continental and islands,  and recently to Montreaux, in Switzerland.  More shows on the agenda. It may be near you, one of this days,  and i can only recommend a visit.

image 4: Sound hole - study. Yep!  There's an ear coming from a wall inside the sound hole. It becomes more interesting with the shadows.