Five years ago, FUSO dropped anchor on the island of São Miguel and created FUSO Insular - Azores Video Art Exhibition. This initiative arose as a direct response to address a notable void within the Azorean artistic panorama regarding training and knowledge in the field of the moving image. Among the activities developed within the FUSO Insular is the creative residency program called Laboratório Imagem em Movimento (Moving Image Laboratory) - a space/time for learning, research, and experimentation that takes place during the summer on the island of São Miguel.
The Laboratory is open to people living in the Azores, whether they are artists or not, with the drive to create their own video work. The purpose is to provide content and references and support to the participants during the development and realization of their works.
In three prior editions (2020/2021/2022), the artists had the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the history of cinema and video art and produce their own films, under the theoretical and practical guidance of artists with extensive experience in the field. Daniel Blaufuks, Susana de Sousa Dias, and Yuri Firmeza were responsible for the theoretical training, while André Laranjinha, a resident artist in São Miguel, provided hands-on support.
The result is a collection of works - autobiographical or fictional - that reflect critically but also emotionally the artists’ relationships with the territory, its people, and their traditions. Emotional considerations, the sense of (non)belonging, the increasing occupation of the Azorean territory, and the use of available technology within the realm of digital media all intertwine in visual and sound experiments, making this initiative a true laboratory of ideas.
In 2022, the Residency Program expanded its scope and invited Yuri Firmeza to film on the island of São Miguel. Firmeza, whose work tests the boundaries between fiction, possibility, and reality, presents “Agapanto Sísmico” (Seismic Agapanthus). The film derives from a popular celebration - the traditional Cavalhadas de São Pedro - and proposes a speculative fiction about the relationship between this patron saint, a natural disaster, the colonial past, religiosity, and the (re)enactment of the cavalhadas in the present time.
The Moving Image Laboratory is co-produced with Arquipélago - Centro de Artes Contemporâneas, Açores.
