An ambitious new space for artists and creators has just opened in Faro promising “strength in togetherness” and the chance to change mentalities.
Fábrica dos Sentidos is a 5,000-square metre space open to all artists and artisans who want to show and display their work, run workshops and develop individual projects.
Luís Mató, the project’s mentor, explains it is a “co-working” space – a centre where by joining together and all paying a ‘symbolic’ rent, artists can achieve their ambitions.
Located between Ria Formosa and the railway line, it is very close to the capital’s Teatro Municipal and run on lines very similar to Lisbon’s proactive LXF – a former textiles factory also transformed into an experimental space for the creative arts.
The Algarve building is an old production centre for carob-processing. It now boasts a cinema club, a book-exchange project, numerous ateliers and dance workshops, a tattoo-parlour, massage, hairdressing and low-cost biological products all offered on an upstairs floor.
One of Fábrica dos Sentido’s founder members, artist Eunice Fantasia (formerly of Botswana, Africa) told Região Sul newspaper that the space is “very important” for the Algarve – something that has been lacking, stressing that it could well “change people’s mentalities”, and open the arts arena to new thinking.
Already working hard on the premises is a carpenter from Turkmenistan, a potter, a Norwegian designer, a dressmaker and a group of artisans.
Luís Mató is hoping soon to introduce theatre groups, photographic workshops and video production studios, as well as space for musical groups and concerts.
Himself a performance artist going by the name of “Mató le freak”, Mató says the idea is to encourage all-comers to the Fábrica dos Sentidos, which he stresses will forever be a work in progress.
Open from 10am to midnight, there is also a wing where people can enjoy light meals, talk and “appreciate graffiti” on the wall.
