Praia do Osso da Baleia
A play in seven acts, day 1
Portugal, May 2026. The stage is set by the Cabo Mondego Section of Portuguese Surrealism, the circle around Miguel de Carvalho, rooted where the Mondego river collides with the Atlantic.
The ensemble: Miguel de Carvalho (Portugal), Bruno Barnabé (Brazil), Ody Saban (France), Seixas Peixoto (Portugal), Rik Lina and myself (The Netherlands). The six of us abandoned to the elements.
Act I: The Open-Air Laboratory
We took to a desolate beach, then withdrew to a clearing. The picnic table stopped being furniture and became a table of debris. Canvas, paper and found objects were worked without rehearsal. The wind directed.
Act II: A Duet for Tape and Flora
A small invention sparked between Seixas and me. We stretched a long ribbon of masking tape between two posts. Seixas painted the paper side; I pressed handfuls of hare's-tail grass into the sticky side, fixing the anatomy of the dunes. We did this twice. When the grass-laden strips were laid across the main work on paper, the whole thing shifted, and we threw ourselves back in.
Scroll down to see the full strip.
Scroll sideways to see the full painting.
Act III: The Title
Every artwork requires a final title. All but one of us proposed a name. Five fragments in different languages were combined to form a single word: 'TOSCCA / Overal zit lippenstift! / Dos massaros aquele sonho azul / As flores do bem / L’élégance de Claude Cahun bien horizontal'
Acrylic, ink, pencils, collage material, masking tape, and hare's-tail grass on paper · 60 × 175 cm
The next day, the collaboration moved on to Buracas do Casmilo →