“The exhibition is an artistic intervention within a salt mine in Loulé, spanning approximately 45 kilometers,” stated the organizers in a communiqué. They clarified that on April 17, three artists would come together to inaugurate the initiative promoted by the Associação Alfaia and the Festival Verão Azul, with support from the Direção-Geral das Artes.
“Each artist will occupy a different chamber within this underground complex, creating a journey that invites visitors to experience various artistic explorations of salt, geology, and human relationships with the natural and technological environment,” the organizers anticipated in a statement.
One of the participating artists, Natália Loyola, will guide visitors to “explore the field of sound ecologies” through “installations that transform tactile experiences into sound experiences,” she added.
“Her work investigates the tenuous relationship between artificial and natural, language, spatiality, and geology by integrating technological elements to create immersive sound environments that invite reflection on the narratives of the Capitalocene,” she further explained.
Victor Gonçalves is the creator of two installations that “explore the relationship between time and matter,” emphasized the organization. One is called “Sentinel Event” and features “over 1,300 paper boats made with the report from the Brazilian Senate’s CPI [Parliamentary Inquiry Commission] on Braskem, regarding the environmental crime at the rock salt mine in Maceió.”
The second installation, titled “Brackish Situation,” offers “a sound and tactile immersion, where the public is invited to stand before blocks of salt,” addressing the “fragility between medium and message and the tension between artificial and natural,” they noted.
The third participating artist, Maura Grimaldi, will lead the audience through a “space of image immersion” and seek “connections between the cinematic experience and the underground world of the mine galleries,” she mentioned.
“Experiencing the mine’s environment up close is as sublime as it is daunting. It brings awareness to the magnitude of work and equipment capable of, simultaneously, providing resources and altering the landscape irreversibly,” expressed Maura Grimaldi, quoted in the statement.
Natália Loyola, on the other hand, stated that “descending 230 meters underground is more than a physical shift, it’s a shift in scale.”
“The salt mine, with its halite walls, becomes a place of complete sensory experience. Occupying an active mine is like entering a space where the plasticity of time materializes in layers, and where human action and geology meet in an aggressive and poetic manner,” added Victor Gonçalves.
