It began as an ordinary Saturday evening at a wine hotel in Portugal. You know, average, gorgeous wine hotel on a beautiful former estate. Pretty and all but ho hum… boring but pleasant. Just food, wine, sunsets and stars to entertain. The sun setting over the meticulously manicured rows of grapes. Orange skies bidding adieu to a wonderful day. Full moon rising in the east.
Then comes the couvert: duck, olives and octopus salad with olive bread and red wine. Rabbit rice and swordfish queued up to follow.
But hark, over yonder, a woman in pink top and purple skirt appears to educate, table by table, the uninformed of what lay ahead. Describing what in the next few hours would unfold. I mean, it was a full moon after all. But, as we were soon to learn, it was somewhat indescribable.
A Dj spinning grocery store style Guns and Roses, Elvis and Talking Heads interspersed with some local favorites (we presume) to accompany a hilltop live painting on a windy evening which several times deposited precious canvas face down on the yard…but wait, that’s not all… lo and behold the denouement of the evening, a live body casting sculpture, narration by pink top in English, Portuguese and French, for paid guests of the exhibition and restaurant patrons alike to enjoy and behold together.
Not having laid witness to a live body casting before, we have nothing to which to compare but it was… muito interessante to say the least. Artsy? Yes. Estranho? Even more so. Obrigado, strange artists. Had we only known what lay in store when we reserved our table we would have invited some friends.
The Traveling Ridleys: Sunday Journal 