Walls for a Revolution: Mural Art Films in Portugal Since the 25th of April 1974: Traces from a Liberated Visual Culture

Abstract

The Portuguese revolution took some filmmakers and artists to the street to document the visual freedom of the moment. The mural art of those days is still remembered, hence nowadays the tourist experience is far from that. The gentrification of the city is the last part of the process of non-recognition of this street art form as an important aspect of this historical period. Some films tried to counter-act and reveal these experiences as “Revolução” by Ana Hatherly (1975), “Pintura Coletiva” (Manuel Costa e Silva, 1974) and “Paredes Pintadas da Revolução Portuguesa” (António Campos, 1975). The impressions of the films express the paradox of the spaces of memory that Nora (1989) underlines when they testify something that disappeared and at the same time is being reenacted with institutional street art demands to commemorate the 25th April anniversaries, like the 40th or the 48th, by the Urban Galleries of Lisbon City Council or the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology.