Project 'Crono' - urban art in Lisbon [arte urbana em Lisboa]

'Crono' emerges from a commitment with Urban Art based on the premise that we are all as ephemeral as all our creations - a way of reflecting upon time and enhancing a new dimension of the city: the city as a living organism which is built and created in a spontaneous, natural and free way. It is within this dynamics of appropriation of Lisbon’s spaces that, over four stages which correspond to the four seasons of the year, several commissioned paintings with an urban impact and the registering of different environments of the capital throughout time will be carried out.

With the aim of establishing an itinerary of Urban Art in Lisbon over four periods of the year, a selection of internationally renowned artists will be invited to develop interventions alongside Portuguese artists and local communities in a process of ‘urban curatorship’, which has the support of the Lisbon City Council in providing locations in the city for this purpose.

Concept

We like to think that in former times, hundreds of years ago, Space and Time enjoyed relevance and power in a similar way. Space was as mysterious and unregulated as Time.

Presently it seems as if we have reached a point in which we can deal with Space as something we can easily render adjectival and which we are able to deal with. We can move quickly, we can access remote locations. On our planet we have managed to reduce Space to a harmless entity.
On the contrary, it is Time which we seem unable to dominate or control. We can establish the place where we will be living, and even claim to be from a given place, but we will never manage to know how long we will last. In reality we are in fact “temporary”. It is Time that reminds us everyday what we really are: nomads. The time our transit will last is irrelevant; we are here for a limited period of time, we are as ephemeral as all our creations. In order to live a good life, we must make the best possible use of our time. Art can clearly help us out with this aim.