The industrial park of Barreiro falls into an inexistent future tense, of urban planning and ideals of progress. “Futuro mais-que-perfeito” proposed an abstract landscape model, mirroring the model exhibited at Casa Museu Alfredo da Silva (the founder of the large industrial complex) and the bold urbanisation plan of 2007 by the architecture atelier Risco.

Portraying a rather dystopian future scenario for the area around PADA studios, including a rise on the level of the sea and some alien structures, this sculptural intervention comments on actual discussions on the development of the region, reflecting also the historical heritage of Barreiro.

Diogo da Cruz (b. 1992, Lisbon) is a conceptual artist based in Lisbon and Munich. He received a BA in Sculpture from the FBAUL (2012) and a Diploma in Sculpture from the ADBK München (2016), where he studied with Hermann Pitz, Ceal Floyer, Andrea Fraser and Tyler Coburn. His practice relies on the use of technologies to replicate or imitate, rearticulate and re-imagine unchallenged structures in Western society. He works on long-term projects driven by partially fictive scenarios, often based on scientific findings and referring to past, present and future socio-political circumstances.

With an interest in the level of uncertainty that is involved in the construction of human knowledge, the projects interweave scientific research, historical elements, memory and fiction to reflect around ‘slowness’ as a form of resistance.

This project is part of an ongoing enquiry into the passing of time and how human activity has shaped and transformed Barreiro; its current state is suspended between obsolescence and “rebirth”. The work is an exploration into labour, and our inherent compulsion to progress and drive forward.On the former site of the Com- panhia União Fabril, there are remnants of heavy production and traces of human activity. The play between man’s ambition and the endurance of the land can be felt in this location, as well as the cyclical lifespan of materials and industry.

“Laws of movement and equilibrium” is a grapple with the forces of nature, ex- pressed through an attempt to contain water in a perfect circle on the ground. In the endeavour to control this important element, we are reminded of the laws of gravity, movement and equilibrium.

Emma Hornsby (b.1986, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK) graduated from Northum- bria University with a BA (Hons) in Photography. History and archival material are key points of departure in Hornsby’s artistic practice. Her diverse practice incorporates materials such as chalk, tape and water.

The architecture of the industrial buildings ask for a strong gesture but at the same time it is very important to respect the history of the architecture and to not make a statement that is asking too much of our attention. The painting depicts this industrial heritage, construction and destruction, shadow and light, balance and unbalance in an extreme abstract manner. Working remotely, a way of working Erris Huigens started some years ago, seems conceptually as well as practically relevant in this period of global pandemic. The artist embraces this process, forcing him as the artist to let go of full control and asks for close and clear communication with those on site, without the possibility of being there physically.

Erris Huigens (b.1978, Holland) lives and works in Amsterdam. He derives inspiration from industrial or urban landscapes, in particular the strict functional character of steel structures, scaffolding and construction cranes. Huigens reconfigures the basic aspects of canvas-painting into a radical art, indoors and out.

Life in Barreiro was regulated by CUF sirens; at seven fifty-five in the morning, every worker had to be at the factory. It felt like a city, inside a village. There was an immensity of men and women, machines and noise, a lot of dust and pollution.

The levels of chemical pollution were so violent that it crossed Barreiro’s contemporary history and it was the workers who suffered the consequences. The fast pace of industrial machines and the massive displacement of workers left a profound mark on what was the largest industrial cluster in the country.

A strong history, but one that can still be re-thought for new horizons - a search for a better ecological path, in a mandatory emergency exit.

Jéssica Burrinha (b.1993, Barreiro) is a sculptor who takes her inspiration from nature. In 2018 Jéssica started to investigate the potential of raw and compressed earth. She is now deeply involved with the interaction between space and compressed earth, seeking to highlight the simplicity and purity of essential materials.

Battlefield comprises a multiple veil installation in a shooting training room. The title is at once literal but also refers to the metaphorical battle a painter experiences within one’s process, or the one a viewer faces when encountering works.

Jacinto chose not to remove anything from the room but to simply add the translucent painted veils, layering colours as if composing and painting the site as a single painting.

The work engages with the preceding occupation, dealing with its repetition, presence, suggestion and representation. She draws the passage, integrating the viewer’s nuances of perception, uncertainty and disorientation as part of the work.

Luísa Jacinto (b.1984, Lisbon) lives and works in Lisbon. Jacinto took part in the Independent Study Programme of Maumaus, Portugal, and has an MA in Fine Arts from the Byam Shaw School of Arts - Central Saint Martins, University of Arts, London. Her practice creates new dimensions that are between the figurative and the abstract, transporting the viewer beyond the pictorial frame and into the composition itself.

This body as well as landscape as a playground for atoms and molecules will transform into a new physical and even spiritual paradigm, with the possibility of an existence of new hybrid species or biological based machines with the possibility of recording and sending memories or sensations using everyday cognitive augmented intelligence.

These digital Prosthesis are now in a transition point and with AI (Artificial intelligence - John McCarthy) and AI (Augmented intelligence - Douglas Engelbart) and technology like Conectome (mapping/digitalizing the Human Brain building a network map for our thoughts images and ideas with the possibility of holograms; clones creating a Library of Souls towards the possibility of Digital Immortality An animated Gif, a video, a digitized archive (soul) of what once was magma, a reference from landscape blood’s system projected on a smartphone with a synthetic support.

These objects, anthropomorphic autonomous entities are placed inside earth’s physical body, a volcano, a living being that recreates it’s activity through a digital prosthesis.

Paulo Arraiano (b. 1977, Portugal) explores the concept of visual seismography, assessing surges in new natural, social and cultural paradigms. His work correlates with his research surrounding the body, landscape and technology, to address questions concerning climate changes, biosphere, extinction, transhumanism and the anthropocene.

Acts of Persistence (2020) is a work that concerns itself with lineage and histories of political resistance. Inspired by the artist’s time working in Barreiro, Acts of Persistence makes reference to the colonial strangleholds of the Portuguese state in relation to Mozambique and the FRELIMO party (Frente de Libertação
de Moçambique). The film references a 1974 Speech made by Samora Machel,
the leader of FRELIMO rejecting a peace proposal from the new Portuguese government. The work is combined with footage of a recent Black Lives Matter demonstration filmed by the artist this past June.

Timothy Yanick Hunter (b. 1990, Toronto, Canada) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto, Canada. His work is focused on narratives specific to the African Diaspora, the work often intersects both speculative concepts and historical ideas around de-colonization and liberation.

On the opening night of the exhibition IN LIMEN presented “This is not a Magritte performance”. The audience was drawn in by means of a playful protocole and a sound installation involving live singers performing improvisational, acoustic explorations.

The composition reflected on the juxtaposition of contemporary art within this specific site in an attempt to condense time periods. The performance engages the audience and opens a dialogue about the experience and the site, its relevance for today and possibly the future.

IN LIMEN is a cultural organisation co-founded in 2019 by sister and brother Diane Giraud and Pierre Giraud. IN LIMEN curates site-specific and cross-disciplinary Art Rituals used to leverage meaningful interactions between the audience members. IN LIMEN experiences are structured around 2 Acts woven seamlessly into each other: Act I Immersive art experience / Act II Conversation.

Echoing the range of outputs of the CUF, the participating artists move freely along the spectrum from accessible to conceptual to surrealistic. The works of the exhibiting artists function independently in context as well as in reference to one another providing insight into ways of engaging with industry/vestiges of industry, historicity, labour, and affect. To this point, it is important to re-think productivist critiques, particularly those of Boris Arvatov[3] which argue for the artist directly labouring within the factory system of industrial capitalist production as a means of demystifying the bourgeois artist’s tendency to create in isolation for a primed audience.

The title of the exhibition “O Que Não Temos Podemos Criar”, a title drawn from a statement from Alfredo Silva-the turn of the century Portuguese entrepreneur and founder of CUF- instigates the exhibition of artworks by generating an active site-consciousness as means of subtly characterising contemporary artistic practice(s).