In Faro’s old town, after passing through Arco da Vila, we come across Artadentro association’s headquarters, at Rua Rasquinho no. 7. Vasco Vidigal, one of the founders, welcomes me. As I enter, I feel embraced by the paintings, soaked in a soft warm light, which announces the end of a rainy April afternoon. Soundscape: Tilt, by Scott Walker.

Patrícia Serrão – Can we talk about Artadentro without mentioning Vasco Vidigal?

Vasco Vidigal – No. But we can’t talk about Artadentro without mentioning Ana André and Manuel Rodrigues either.

PS – You attended the Initiation to Visual Arts course at SNBA and the complete study programme at Ar.Co, which you concluded in 1997. What motivated you to come to Algarve?

VV – Ana André and I, around 98/99, lived in Lisbon and wanted a change. In Lisbon the working conditions in this area were inferior to those in Faro.

PS – How did you perceive the region on a cultural level, specifically the city of Faro, when you arrived?

VV– In Faro there was the Galeria Municipal Trem programmed by Manuel Baptista, with very interesting exhibitions. In 2002, Manuel Baptista was dismissed, and it started to be programmed by order of enrolment. It lost all artistic relevance. There was Centro Cultural de Almancil, Palácio da Galeria in Tavira, and LAC in Lagos.

The artists that resided here were Manuel Baptista, René Bértholo, Costa Pinheiro, Xana and Otto Mühl with his community in Moncarapacho. Besides that, there was some theatre, some music, there was still no visual arts university course, but we had the Tomás Cabreira High School whose students visited our exhibitions at the encouragement of the teachers, especially Cidália de Brito.

PS – You only established the association in 2007, but you have been programming since 2003. How would you define Artadentro’s path?

VV – Yes, Artadentro started its activity in July 2003 as an informal project, in a residence of Thierry Simões and Mariana Ramos. Then in September there was the first Desenho exhibition by Manuel Baptista. However, there was already a research and planning effort that took a few years. In this first phase, we presented twenty-six exhibitions with thirty artists in our venue in Faro. At the invitation of the AAPAAA association, we took part in Faro Capital Nacional da Cultura 2005 with the collective TRACTOR. This included a programme of conferences, music and performances, where we had the participation of Ana Borralho & João Galante, very important artists for Artadentro, not only because of their high-quality work, but also for the generosity and assiduity with which they have been present until now.

In 2007, unable to continue the project without external financial support, we established ourselves as a non-profit cultural association. To date, we have made more than 48 individual and collective exhibitions, including projects with national and foreign entities, public and private. We have had the participation of about one hundred and twenty artists and numerous other collaborations, namely authors who have written about the exhibitions.

PS – You have also developed ephemeral work, like Radiação, a radio-art project. How did that idea come up?

VV– The possibility of working with sound, as a visual author without musical knowledge, appeared in the 90s. Miguel Azguime presented in Ar.Co a computer program that allowed to visualize and manipulate sound as a graphic image, displaying the immediate and corresponding change of what was heard. It was like painting with sound. Then, in 2010, in collaboration with RUA FM, a non-commercial university radio station, we organised the zero edition of Radiação, the first radio-art event in the Algarve. It had four editions and a participation in the Radia international chain, in collaboration with Rádio Zero.

PS – How did Artadentro deal with the pandemic?

VV – It was complicated. We postponed exhibitions and extended contemporary art cycles that we had in collaboration with the Faro Municipal Museum. There were financial difficulties and upheavals for artists. One was right at the outbreak of the pandemic, with the postponement of the Passeio exhibition by painter João Queiroz, on the eve of its inauguration.

PS – Do you think that the absence of municipal support is due to a lack of cultural knowledge?

VV – It’s not just a municipal problem. It’s a national problem. It is a problem of the Portuguese society in general. There is even some money for culture and art. But, at the municipal level, besides the politicians’ lack of cultural background, few municipalities have people specialized in the artistic areas and especially in contemporary art.

PS – What will Artadentro program soon?

VV – We have almost nineteen years of work and it is impossible to write the history of art at the beginning of the 21st century in Faro and in the Algarve without mentioning Artadentro. But, unfortunately, we still haven’t been given the conditions that allow us to program our activity with time. We are very dependent on financial support – particularly from municipalities. In other words, the good will, enlightenment and competence of politicians. At this moment, besides our first poetry edition, Σrata by Manuel Rodrigues, we have ideas, objectives and the will to persevere and seize opportunities.