The Portuguese independent artist and director Francisco Janes has been sonically and visually mapping the island of Porto Santo since 2019, monitoring the work of PORTA 33 from the moment it took over the Escola da Vila. According to him, it’s a ‘process of transforming a place in the island’s territory through inhabited architecture’. This has led to the emergence of ‘a living archive of signifiers’. Nesta ilha, nesta escola is the first of two exhibitions arising from this continuous work, bringing together entries from a ‘camera and recorder that embrace the landscape’ and ‘a decal-like commitment to what is happening during the school’s rebirth’. Janes watched the restoration of the original architectural elements of the vital Escola da Vila building, designed by architect Raúl Chorão Ramalho, the residencies of artists like Nicolás Paris, Carolina Vieira and Daniel Silvestre, as well as events and workshops held by PORTA 33 over the last five years. He also went on long solitary walks around the island to absorb the territory in its entirety and depth. His numerous visits to Porto Santo at different times are part of Nuno Faria’s curated Eira programme. The artist’s work often involves developing a project from a specific place.

We can hear the rocks colliding with each other as they are swept by the sea waves, the wind sweeping from the foot to the peak, the leaves fluttering in the wind, the crickets chirping at night, the birds flying over the island. We come across bodies outlined by their own hands, children playing in the school premises, aerial plants bobbing in the wind, drawing and painting hands covered in dragon’s blood, lines appearing on paper, mountains rising into the air.

Two projections and several sound excerpts fill the space of Escola da Vila’s old canteen. Francisco Janes’ video and sound installation is built on multi-sensory experiences that shape the island. As the artist explains, ‘this evocative space is a shadow of that which is fleeting but enduring’. An immersive experience. A dive into Porto Santo’s landscape and experiences starting from the school building. A separate intervention connects two of the buildings using fishing lines. The unexpected wind coming through these lines is translated into vibrations and broadcast live from one of the classrooms, breaking into the neighbouring courtyard space. We mysteriously hear this amplified sound, but we cannot immediately identify it, as it is just a connecting rumble. Janes’ recordings dwell on the sensitive realm, signalling the length of time spent in that territory. An experimental, sensory cinema work. ‘A cinema portraying the face as landscape, the landscape as face’ (Nuno Faria, 2022). For just a moment, we disconnect from our surroundings and time comes to a necessary and pressing halt, immersing ourselves in what we hear and see.

Francisco Janes’ work is firmly influenced by the idea of experience and is based on an attention to, respect for and even infatuation with the document. The document as a trace, or as a clue to something. Each of his recordings is a hint because it opens something up and implies relationships with sometimes invisible issues. ‘Clues in search of a purpose’, as Janes described them. When traces are collected, all the material is studied to find these poetic connections and develop a film, a sound piece or a combination of the two, forming an ‘anthropology of the senses’. Janes is interested in how the relationships between the different clues affect the senses, so that the viewer is provided with an experience.

The inauguration of ‘Nesta ilha, nesta escola’ was held during the town’s Festa da Escola, an event that started with an opening concert and included performances by the traditional Porto Santo Band and Folklore Group, a performance by a group of students and the presentation of the #90 Umbigo magazine, with a special edition on Escola do Porto Santo, PORTA33-Porto Santo-The School Effect, for which Francisco Janes conceived a visual essay. The second instalment of this exhibition takes place in March 2025 at Porta 33, Funchal. It is an expanded version of the work done by the artist that dates back to 2019, the year this project was launched, including documentation of the Escola da Vila area, now a place for artist residencies and the activities undertaken by Porta 33, two sound pieces and two main projections focused on two central aspects rooted in the idea of the collective, ‘a plurality of individual experiences’ and ‘learning groups and collective work’.

In addition, the School of Natural Cinema, proposed by the artist, answers the challenge launched by Porta 33 to implement a pedagogical project. It revolves around the idea of making a simple process of creating image and sound pieces from the most basic things accessible to people. A project to impart knowledge and create documentaries for the territory, based on the experience of film production, which has already had a few workshops.

Francisco Janes moved to Lithuania about ten years ago, where he lives with his family in an secluded forest setting by the country’s largest lake, the Asvėja. He works in this isolation, watching nature change from day to day, as it is born, dies and is born again. A transformative process that runs counter to the common idea that nothing happens in these areas. Along with Phill Niblock, he founded Casa Amarela there, ‘a growing archive and a site for art and learning about each other and the forest’. This place between water and land, with a glacial landscape, is home to artist residencies and a growing archive initiated as a result of Niblock’s residency, six months before his death, in partnership with Francisco Janes. For all these reasons, Janes’ ongoing visit to the island of Porto Santo is surely fitting. ‘I often say that not all islands are surrounded by sea, when I speak about the place I moved to’.

Nesta Ilha, nesta escola by Francisco Janes can be visited at Escola do Porto Santo until March 30, 2025.