How to Look Together is a project by Brazilian artist Luiza Baldan developed on Cova do Vapor beach, at the meeting point between the Tagus River and the Portuguese Atlantic Ocean.
Over the course of one year, Baldan hosted gatherings at the Vapor Library, a community cultural space run by local volunteers, many of them elderly residents with direct ties to the area’s history. Based on these meetings, the project brings together individual narratives and collective memory in a territory marked by environmental and urban transformation, including coastal erosion, the loss of approximately 2 km of sandy shoreline, and the manual relocation of houses in the mid-20th century. The project results in an artist’s book (Fotô Editorial) that brings together a choral text, archival images, photographs by the artist, and documentation of activities, as well as a video co-directed with Patricia Black, built from two beach performances with community participation.
Video Synopsis
The video combines two performances recorded at different moments, focusing on symbolic and affective relationships between the community, the sea, and the Bugio Lighthouse.
The first performance takes place at sunset on the beach, along a shoreline that has been altered since the 1950s by erosion processes. Around a fire, five volunteer participants read aloud more than 400 names, marking a century of lives connected to the place, facing the Bugio Lighthouse, which was once closer and reachable on foot at low tide.
The second performance follows two octogenarian women on a boat crossing from Cova do Vapor bay to the Bugio Lighthouse. Although they had wished for this approach for over 50 years, it is the first time they make the journey, crossing by water the area that was once a beach. With songs and conversation, the scene works as a counterpoint to the first – not as a memorial act, but as the fulfillment of a long-deferred desire.
By juxtaposing the two situations, the video addresses proximity and distance, loss and belonging, linking individual memory and collective heritage within a changing territory.
The video project was developed in close collaboration with director, cinematographer, and editor Patricia Black, with cinematography also by Luiza Baldan, Aline Belfort, and Filipe Barrocas, direct sound by Pedro Rodrigues, sound design and composition by Nico Espinoza, and color grading by Andreia Bertini.
