Stone
The names of João Cutileiro and Utilpedra (João Cutileiro and António Pedroso) are linked with Ar.Co's activities implying the use of stone. In 1979 Cutileiro gives an intensive course in stone sculpture in Ar.Co in which participants are introduced to direct carving with electric tools.The training program at Ar.Co’s own stone studio, headed by Graça Costa Cabral, is a direct consequence of Cutileiro’s course. That same year, Ar.Co and Cinequipa produce a series of short films by João and Fernando Matos Silva called “Imaginações da Matéria” for RTP - Portugal’s state-owned television. One of these films (“A Mão, a Máquina e a Pedra”) is about Cutileiro’s work as is Ar.Co’s 1980 production of a slideshow by Maria do Carmo GalvãoTeles called “Uma Escultura, Um dia”. Ar.Co also organizes group shows in Mértola and Portalegre that year. In 1981 Ar.Co is invited by Utilpedra to organize the “International Symposium of Stone Sculpture – Evora 81”. Activities involving stone are given a great deal of support by the Associação Industrial Portuguesa, Banco de Fomento Nacional, various municipalities, companies within the sector, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Instituto do Comércio Externo, the Secretaria de Estado da Cultura and businesses that represent manufacturers of equipment. During the 1981/82 school year, the Mozambican sculptor Alberto Chissano comes to Ar.Co to work in stone. The exhibition “New Sculpture in Stone – an experiment” is on display throughout 1982 and synthesizes the Ar.Co/Utilpedra collaborative practices until then. There are numerous plans for further projects, including a school for stonecutters (“Canteiros”) in Batalha. The school in fact manages to carry out intensive training activities for Ar.Co students as well asa show of the results (between 1982 and1985), but this project is unable to survive. In the decade following the “International Symposium of Stone Sculpture – Oporto 85”, which is also organized by Ar.Co, the use of stone in school training becomes progressively less important and although Portuguese and foreignstudents still find it of interest, it can no longer be sustained in a structured format.
-
Image of "Uma escultura, um dia / One sculpture, one day", 1980, slideshow by Maria do Carmo Galvão Teles and Manuel Silveira Ramos about João Cutileiro, produced by Ar.Co.
-
"International Stone Sculpture Symposium - Évora 81". António Campos Rosado.
-
"International Stone Sculpture Symposium - Évora 81".
-
Brochure for the exhibition "New Sculpture in Stone" at the Centro Cultural de S. Lourenço, Almansil, 1982.
-
Ar.Co's Stone Sculpture Workshop at Quinta de S. Miguel, Almada, 1987.
-
Nuno Henrique (Individual Project). Stone letter carvings for the series "O velho dragoeiro...". Quinta de S. Miguel, Almada, 2010.
