Community Dinner

[By Eduardo Salavisa in Lisbon, Portugal] The people present at this community dinner, live on the streets or in very precarious situations, are, in the eyes of many, “invisible”. People walk by them, looking the other way, not wanting to see, not wanted to be confronted by the situation. Alfredo, the responsible for the “Serve the City” association invited us, USkP, to, on his own words, make them “visible”. To draw them one needs to look many times, to observe every detail, their expressions, how they dress, their gestures. Becoming the object, at least for a few minutes, of our entire attention.

Half through dinner I got a seat on a table. My attention was drawn to a man that opened a case and was showing his drawings to the others on the table. His artistic name is Dacosta (his birth name is Vítor da Costa) to whom I talked about his recent artistic successes. By my left side was Tito, who came from Africa an adult man and lives in Carcavelos, near the beach, the place that looks the most like home to him. On the right side Luca, an Italian geography that is in Lisbon studying the earthquakes. Joaquim was keeping his eyes on the food and Sandra was very nice. Rodrigues and Carlos were silent men that just watch.

At the end of dinner I bought a painting from Dacosta. Made in paper, mixed technics, an abstract. To him is Africa, his origin, with rivers, birds, the sunset, trees, everything that we want to be there. The title is “ The delicious place to be”.