Details: The second invited artist to perform in Covilhã was Alexandre Farto aka VHILS, the most international of all the Portuguese street artists and holder of a distinctive and worldwide art technique, which he describes as sculptural stencil. What we were able to follow during his stay, with the use of pneumatic hammers and chisels, was the transformation of a retaining wall, completely invisible to the city, into a piece that intends to portray the aging and melancholy of the interior of the country.
A message of criticism and of intervention in the city, a common exercise in all the body of work of the artist, something he revealed during the lecture performed for the community.
Biography: Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto (1987) has been interacting visually with the urban environment under the name of Vhils since his days as a prolific graffiti writer in the early 2000s. This striking form of visual poetry, showcased around the world in both indoor and outdoor settings, has been described as brutal and complex, yet imbued with a simplicity that speaks to the core of human emotions, expressing the struggle between the aspirations of the individual and the demanding, saturated environment of the urban spaces he lives in, highlighting and exposing the sombre dimension that lies behind the current model of development and the material aspirations it encompasses – unsustainable, yet inebriating.