The tourist who fell in love with Faro launches book about the city's modernist heritage

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Article from @Sulinformação

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When he first arrived in Faro as a tourist, Richard Walker was unaware of the modernist legacy reflected in the city's architecture. He fell in love with the Algarve capital and, now, 20 years later, he is publishing a book that showcases this aspect of the city while also offering a glimpse into other locations across the region.

Faro Modernism, a book published by Batsford Books, contains 240 pages and approximately 300 photographs taken over the course of two decades. It was presented on May 21 at AP Eva Senses.

Richard Walker, a painter and visual artist whose work has been exhibited around the world, arrived in Faro about 20 years ago as just another English tourist visiting the Algarve capital.

It came as a surprise to the multidisciplinary artist when, during his first walks around the city, he began to notice its modernist architectural heritage.

"Everything was a surprise, which was great. And I think the book is about that. It's about the surprise of seeing things for the first time and being excited by what you see," he said in an interview with Sul Informação.

As he deepened his understanding of the architecture and modernist legacy found throughout the city, Walker began to wonder why nothing had yet been published documenting it.

"I thought, 'This architecture looks interesting,' and I couldn't understand why nobody was paying attention to it," he explained.

From that point on, he began documenting what he saw through his camera and eventually met others who shared his enthusiasm. Two of those people were Christophe and Angélique de Oliveira, owners of the tourist accommodation The Modernist and founders of the The Modernist Weekend.

Since then, he has collaborated in organizing the event—which this year celebrates its fifth edition—not only by leading guided tours but also by participating in exhibitions featuring his own paintings.

Then, "in the midst of all this," Batsford Books, a London-based publishing house, approached him with a proposal.

"We are very interested in the architecture you are photographing. Perhaps we could make a book," they told him.

"This project came to me; I wasn't looking for it. Everything I've done since arriving in Portugal has happened by chance. I wasn't searching for anything, so I feel very fortunate in that respect," the artist revealed.

Richard Walker's work documents and explains the historical context of many buildings, particularly those designed by Manuel Gomes da Costa, who, he says, "is the principal architect" and left "a significant mark" on both the city and the region.

"But I was also very interested in the broader context: all the other architects who were working at the same time, and the history of the Algarve since the 1920s. So the book covers this entire period. It was a lot of work," he explains. What, then, makes Faro and the Algarve so distinctive within the modernist architecture of southern Europe?

"Well, I think it's because it remained largely unknown until now and is only now being discovered. I'm very happy to be part of that process because hardly anyone knew about it. When I return to England and talk about Faro and this architectural legacy, people often say, 'No, we had no idea about that,'" he replies.

Although the book focuses on the past through the modernist heritage of Faro and the wider region, Richard Walker believes that both his own texts and essays, as well as those contributed by the writers he invited to participate, are "oriented towards the future." "So it's not only about the past; it's also about the present and the future. It's all three together," he emphasizes.

Asked if the Algarve capital is not yet making the most of this legacy, the artist observes that it is "becoming more aware" of what it has. In addition to highlighting the contribution of The Modernist Weekend (Modernist

Weekend), points out that he noticed on his last visits that there are "more and more houses being restored, which was not happening before".

"And there are other cities with a certain modernist past, like Olhão and Loulé. This will attract more and more people. I launched the book so that people start to observe this architecture, so that they see..." Faro in a di!erent way. On almost every street in Faro "Sometimes we may have to walk a little further and look more closely, but we will always discover something interesting, something with modernist inspiration," he concluded.