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Interweaved Paths // Raquel Belli 2023

Raquel Belli

2023

The faces of a city are those of people who make them every day. Citizens live their day-to-day lives according to what their surroundings have to offer: from history and culture to accessibility, mobility, and even weather, our urban experiences are constantly changing, and therefore the city is also in a permanent mutation. It is a relationship of endless complex entanglements.

In her most recent urban artwork for Porto, the artist Raquel Belli visually comments on the interconnections between some of the most outstanding aspects of the Portuguese city: tile murals, tourists, and, of course, its inhabitants. In her artwork, she brings portraits of five anonymous people, who come from different cities in the world but have chosen Porto as a place to call their own.

Tourists, who today play a pivotal role in the dynamic of the city, stand in front of the outdoor. They represent the hundreds of thousands of people who come to see Porto's beauty and experience its local culture every year.

Printed on a large-size sailcloth, this photograph is afterward interlaced manually by Raquel Belli with a second image, the one of a tile mural. A signature of Porto, the blue and white ceramic squares that cover entire walls, churches, and monuments now appear intertwined and diffusely, representing the landscape of the city.

As a public artwork presented in the form of an outdoor, 'Interweaved Paths' comments on the experiences of those who live in and visit Porto at the same time it is a new element in its urban landscape.