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Ecological Threads in Freixo: Heritage, Speculation, and Ruderal Insurgency
In Ruin and vegetation: uneasy coexistence between art and architecture
Author: Beatriz Duarte
Organizers: Miguel Costa (i2ADS/CEAA-ESAP), Inês Moreira (Extreme Sites/CEAA-ESAP), Monique Bernardine (Casa São Roque), Joana Couto (CEAA-ESAP)
Location: Casa de São Roque (Porto, Portugal)
April, 15 2025
spatial practices; mediation; performative reading
Ecological Threads in Freixo: Heritage, Speculation, and Ruderal Insurgency was a performative reading developed as part of a public presentation, combining spoken text and moving image. The work reflects on urban transformation, vegetal insurgencies, and contested ecologies in Freixo, activating the space through voice, narrative, and visual projection.
More information about the event:
“Ruin and vegetation: uneasy coexistence between art and architecture” was an event at Casa de São Roque in Oporto. The gathering is a space for sharing and debate, taking as its starting point the publication “Vegetação Inquieta: registos improváveis entre paisagem, arte, arquitectura e ruína”. Bringing together artists and researchers, this event aims to explore different formats for presentation and dialogue, favouring an experimental and interdisciplinary approach.
Throughout the day, subjects such as mining and remediation, microplastics and changes in planetary materiality, modes of cultural and ecological resistance, urban gardens and ruderal ecosystems, as well as forms of coexistence between plants and ruins will be addressed. These themes were developed by the different authors through field observations, work methodologies and personal and emotional reflections, oscillating between the individual and the collective dimension of relation with landscapes.
Participants were challenged to experiment with new modes of communication, going beyond the traditional conference format. More than a formal event, the aim is to create a space of proximity, sharing and exchange of ideas, where the different contributions can establish a more open and fluid dialogue with the context of the meeting, the architecture and the park of São Roque.
Participants: André Cepeda, Beatriz Duarte, Dária Salgado, Flora Paim, Inês Azevedo, Inês Moreira, Isabel Carvalho, Joana Mateus, Joana Rafael, Kat Austen, Miguel Costa, Monique Bernardine
Morning
• 10:30 Monique Bernardine (Visit to Casa São Roque)
• 11:00 André Cepeda (Portfolio of photographs of Casa São Roque)
• 11:30 Miguel Costa (Disturbance and Coexistence: A Performative Reading from Weedy Conditions)
• 12:00 Inês Azevedo & Joana Mateus (The revealing capacity of plants: between the botanical and the photographic)
• 12:30 Kat Austen (A Place of Dispersals)
Afternoon
• 14:30 Flora Paim (Shared Listening: Resonances between Garden, Vegetable Patch, and Wasteland)
• 15:00 Dária Salgado (Permanent Forest)
• 15:30 Beatriz Duarte (Ecological Threads in Freixo: Heritage, Speculation, and Ruderal Insurgency)
• 16:00 Joana Rafael & Isabel Carvalho (Project “U”)
• 16:30 Inês Moreira (Ruins, Plato and Plane Trees: Something Radical in Athens)
• 17:00 Presentation of the publication (Restless Vegetation: improbable records between landscape, art, architecture, and ruin)
Fotos de Cristina Ferreira e Martín Hernández Molín