[Cinema Batalha: series of 6 photographs]

This series of six photographs documents the mural created by Júlio Pomar for Cinema Batalha in Porto, one of the most emblematic and controversial works of the early part of his career.

Using the traditional fresco technique-which requires continuous painting before the plaster dries-Pomar had to interrupt the work after being arrested by the political police (PIDE).

After leaving prison, and already after the cinema had opened, he completed the fresco at night, while the cinema was closed.

Shortly afterward, the mural was covered on the orders of PIDE.

These photographs therefore constitute a fundamental testimony of a work believed to have been lost until 2022. For many decades they were the only evidence of the quality and artistic, political, and activist dimension of Pomar’s work, illustrating the confrontation between art, public space, and censorship in Portugal under the Estado Novo dictatorship.