Joana Nascimento

Project: “SimLugares”
Category: Drawing, Video
Period: April 2009
Event: Art Residency

“SimLugares” (“YesPlaces”) is a project that has an interest with territory and landscape, in the sense of a connection between people and their (rural) context and of interaction between people and space (of its uses and ownership). Trying to resist Marc Augé’s interpretation of non-places, Joana is more interested in a concept of commonplace associated with a psycho geographic recognition of a place.

Following Henri Léfebvre’s (a Marxist thinker) words, the activation of a place is made through its own dynamics and the meaning of a specific space is less related to its construction than with the uses that it allows.  In this project the artist sought to produce a series of maps (mental, conceptual, cognitive) based on oral indications from the local inhabitants about the personal practices in the space of Nodar.It is a question of seeking to understand a place through associated images, memories and uses, and with these elements to expose the way people connect with the surrounding landscape.

Video excerpt from “SimLugares”

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Joana Nascimento | Portugal

Joana Nascimento is a Portuguese visual artist. She holds a BSc in Fine Arts – Sculpture by the Fine Arts Faculty of Oporto, where she is currently developing an investigation called “Territorialization of Spaces, [In] Visibilities – An approach to ‘performative’ Space and Time in Artistic Practices for Public Space”, in 2nd year Master of Art and Design for the Public Space. In 2006/07 she studied Scenography and Intermedia at Akademia Sztuk Pieknych w Krakowie, Poland.

She is also a member of the “Inner-city” multidisciplinary working group, whose main concerns are local approaches to public space and participated in several collective exhibitions in Portugal, Spain and Poland.