(Un)Guide to Tourism @ Montemor-o-Novo: 2024-27 will be, first and foremost, what it can become, resulting from the work carried out in the territory within the context of various artistic residencies. It is expected that this could result in a printed publication (like an Artist's Book) and/or online, but it could also result in a series of anti-tours made available to the local population (on a wider scale). Everything will be decided by experiencing the territory and encounters with people and natural landscapes with a human touch. In this way, it could be a kind of artistic-cultural guide, therefore more subjective and desirably more humanist, privileging the infra-ordinary (that which escapes our daily gaze or that which is hidden from us in the media or in mass tourist guides, in other words: the coin that falls and remains eternally between the sofa cushions). A very concrete example: we will have a section entitled WORLD HERITAGE that will re-present Montemor-o-Novo through people who live in the territory: natives, residents, visitors, but also other people from various national and international geographies who arrived here in an initial sample of between 15 and 20 people.This example proves our demand to apply principles of inclusion at all levels of representation: socio-economic conditions, age groups, territorial coverage, nationalities, and sociology for their presence, gender(s), sexual identities, idiosyncrasies, etc.
In other words, and in this specific case, what we are promoting here is the anthropological approach in a statement that is more than political-activist - it is the elevation of the status of people as bearers of a fascinating (im)material heritage, full of unimaginable and unexpected biographies, autobiographies and auto-fictions that are fortunately accessible to us through the rescue of our anthropological methodology.
Imagine how wonderful it would be if people started coming to Montemor-o-Novo looking for person A, I, L, G, M, T, V, or even during their walks, strolls, and wanderings, but also encouraging them to stop for unexpected encounters with residents or people just passing through. Perhaps it would be possible to reconsider and amplify the gesture of taking selfies, for the sake of preserving the ontological integrity of the landscape and the physical integrity of the people. Is it possible to elevate the status of the people to the status of a Protected Landscape or World Heritage Site?
