Dissemination
International collective Threadsafe organises paper rubbing activity at the Walls of Faro
From 23 to 27 August, the international collective Threadsafe invites the people of Faro to take part in a collective artistic creation dedicated to the textures, stories and memories of the city’s Walls.
Over five days, the Walls of Faro will serve as the starting point for a large collective rubbing of their stones onto paper. The activity will take place daily at Largo de São Francisco, from 10 am to 1 pm and from 5 pm to 8 pm. Participation is free, no registration is required, and the activity is open to all ages. All materials will be provided.
Along a 100-metre stretch between Arco do Repouso and Miradouro da Ria Formosa, participants will be invited to feel the surface of the Walls and reproduce the textures of their stones through rubbing. This simple and accessible technique makes it possible to record reliefs, cracks and other traces that usually go unnoticed.
The wax crayons used in the activity will be designed and produced by the collective itself, using clay from the Algarve as a pigment. In this way, the material used to reveal the surface of the Walls also carries the matter and colour of the Algarve landscape.
Created by many hands, the resulting impression will function as a second skin of the Walls: a collective record in which the monument’s materiality meets the memories and experiences of those who live in the city. More than reproducing the surface of the stones, the activity proposes a shared gesture of attention and care towards this heritage.
During the activity, the collective will also collect testimonies from people who live, work or have worked in Faro and who maintain a meaningful relationship with the Walls and the Old Town. Participation in the interviews will be voluntary, and some of the testimonies may become part of the project’s audiovisual archive and future presentations, including a documentary.
The activity is part of Topologia: Muralhas e Memória (Topologies: Walls and Memory), an artistic project that will result in an interactive art installation to be presented in Faro in 2027. The collective rubbing and the testimonies will be transformed into a pathway that audiences will be able to explore, activating sounds, voices and memories associated with this territory.
Since 2024, the Threadsafe collective has been developing TOPOLOGIES, an artistic research project exploring space, memory and identity. The project began in London and subsequently travelled to Athens. Topologia: Muralhas e Memória in Faro is the latest chapter of this research and will be developed until 2028.
The project is being developed through dialogue and collaboration with local partners Faro City Council, CIAC – Research Centre in Arts and Communication, Associação 289 and Alberto Rocha – Cerâmica Artesanal, whose knowledge, involvement and support have been essential to its realisation. This phase of Topologia: Muralhas e Memória is funded by Creative Scotland.
Information
Activity: Collective rubbing of the Walls of Faro
Dates: 23–27 August 2026
Time: 10 am–1 pm and 5 pm–8 pm
Location: Largo de São Francisco, Faro
Participation: Free of charge; no registration required
Audience: All ages
Esta publicação também está disponível em: Portuguese (Portugal)