[ To determine the end of the dream of “Arte do Toureio” – “The Art of Bullfighting” – in the XXI century to the boys and girls that are emerging in the Portuguese bullfighting world it’s the same as erasing poetry from writing; erasing images from cinema; getting the centre piece out from sculpture; erasing from painting all the colours that come from the human and artistic palette that integrates this tradition. Passionately by the colour and the Lusitanian People… there is a serious threat to end this: bound to the strangest laws. To put an end to “Arte do Toureio” is killing its artists’ romantic watch. In art, as in life… everything is colour, tragedy, triumph, glory, failure, luck, death! Thrown to the wolves (or bulls)... I pass my hands on the colours. I accept the challenge made by the company Terra Brava and the Monarchic Movement “Pensar Real~Pensar Portugal”, to execute the “Arte & Toiros” exhibition as part of the “XII Royal Bullfight” which will have the attendance of TRH the Dukes of Braganza. I remember my childhood!... The Tentas – a kind of bullfighting –, the Arenas, the Festivals on the Bull Farms… The silence and the uproar of the colours of this art!... I’ve been told that Portugal used to stop to listen the radio show “Sol e Toiros” – Sun and Bulls! It’s out of love for the colours and the Portuguese Traditions that I produce this exhibition paying tribute to the first Portuguese Radio Show “Sol e Toiros”, created by Leopoldo Nunes, Manuel Azambuja and Hélder Sobral Mendonça. To all aficionados (bullfighting fans) and especially to the young entrepreneur Carlos Pegado for his dedication to the “Arte do Toureio”. To the Royal Bullfight romanticism and to our aficionados Kings!
To end the Bullfighting Art is like letting the artists perish from within, which is the darkest of all deaths! ]
Maria Sobral Mendonça
Plastic Artist
To end the Bullfighting Art is like letting the artists perish from within, which is the darkest of all deaths! ]
Maria Sobral Mendonça
Plastic Artist
