Located in the eastern part of the city of Porto, the Faculty of Fine Arts occupies an old palace from the 19th century that has gardens where buildings of architectural interest were built in the 1950s, specially designed for teaching the traditional disciplines of Fine Arts. Currently, the exchange between European artistic education institutions and the Faculty of Fine Arts is intense and continues to grow both in terms of student and teacher mobility. It is based on this that we would like to show the faculty, that is, “trace a path” so that anyone from the outside can get to know the whole.

The work begins with the relationship between gardens and buildings, which through their transparent planes, they allow a connection between the outside and the inside. Then, moving to a more interior environment where we intend to show the atmosphere that exists at the Faculty of Fine Arts: disorderly, but at the same time interesting, since it conveys, in a way, the emotions of the artists when creating their works. The presence of the human figure is also another relevant issue, as it suggests how space can be appropriate. Appropriation through physical movement within of the spaces originated the title “Between Serenity and Seduction”. Based on the theories of Peter Zumthor on architectural atmospheres, we realize that architecture is spatial and temporal, being lived in space and in the moment. The experience is made from the encounter with tension that leads us or seduces us to follow a certain path. Architecture is a “staging” produced by the architect, through play of lights, textures, colors, sounds, etc.

In this way, we are inspired by the portfolio of several photographers. On the one hand, we chose Pedro E. Guerrero and Kim Zwarts, because they represent order in architecture, which often appears alone in an orderly and clear way, or with human presence to give scale and context. In addition, Guerrero has collections that list architecture, human beings and works of the visual arts, which is also interesting for our study, taking into account that the center of interest of the chosen college is the fine arts. On the other hand, we here inspired by Jeff Wall who captures disorder situations using color as a way to represent human emotions in everyday environments and uses the human figure to portray hypothetical and staged situations.

In the work we intend to create a visual narrative that contrasts the order with the disorder of the treated place. Our goal is to showcase both the clear, volumetric and almost monochromatic side of architecture, as well as an aseptic space. However, we also intend to capture the texture of the stones, vegetation and ateliers of work, which have completely cluttered and colorful scenarios. These places are only seen as workplaces, they hide behind the final result, the work of the visual arts, but can be interpreted by the emotions they convey.

Using different photographic scales, we create compositions that, through approximations, movements, repetitions and angles, try to portray and clarify our intention for this narrative, making it a logical and coherent sequence. These choices were driven by the sensations that we intend to express and that the space conveys.