Drawing in 33 hours – Túlia Saldanha + Robert Schad, 1983
Álvaro Rosendo
Goethe-Institut, Lisbon, April 13th, 14th and 15th, 1983
As referred in the manifest signed by Robert Schad (in the catalog Túlia Saldanha, ed. Gulbenkian, 2014, page 213), «The temporary drawings, aligned in a mosaic, describe one part of our animic life, when they enable the irruption of all emotions in the antithetic confrontation of it's total contradiction. No drawing is destroyed, no study is concealed. Doing is what matters, being the radical will the strongest, than fear towards the demands.»
Túlia Saldanha (1930 - 1988) and Rodert Schad (1953 - ) are two artists who crossed paths due to their common interests and artistic will. After several well succeeded experiences, they developed «drawing in 33 hours» during three days long, with a performative program which involved pedestrians in the closest street – Lisbon's square of Campo Mártires da Pátria.
The ones passing by, curious, were invited to draw without «fear» and with the maximum of spontaneity along with the artists company. Then Túlia and Robert would enter Goethe Institut's space and «exhibited» in the available walls and windows, without censorship or selection, all the produced drawings.
Next, both artists created a «show» of common drawing, in a giant format, which involved their own bodies, to which were added the expression of its traces, being left in the underlying support. This last «act» was exclusive for both, but counted with the presence of the audience. All people were constantly invited to produce their own drawings.