The photographic projects are the result of the work developed by the students of Photography II, in the degree of Audiovisual Communication, ESMAD.

Shimmering Moon

by Francisca Dores

Nicknamed as “Chinatown”, Varziela’s industrial zone has the largest Chinesecommunity in Portugal. Despite its two thousand square meters and accordingto official data about 23,000 chinese people1, it remains an alienated territory.Walking through the ghostly streets, I’m surrounded by warehouses, garbage andwaste, and also by drying washing. There’s, more predominantly, a deep andterrifying silence that is only cut off by the sound of arriving cars and exiting vans, as well as by mandarin feuds. I then realize that this place is, for us westerners,unreachable and incomprehensible in many ways.Most of the sellers and residents themselves are not familiar with the portugueselanguage and, in a considerable number of shop windows, we observe postersannouncing job offerings. I keep walking the streets. More silence. A constant senseof hostility and distrust. I feel as if I don’t belong here. The further I am, away from familiar places, like the national highway 13 or even the metro line, I am caressed with the dystopian presence of mankind, and of theeveryday life iin the industrial desert of Chinatown.In addition to the ever-present flowing bed sheets, I also find gardens, sofas and toys. Traces of life keep appearing in the landscape, but their owners seem invisible. From time to time we hear their voices and see them watching us through the stores’windows. Yet, our interaction is restricted to this.“Shimmering Moon” is entitled after one of the stores that, like many others, ironically appears to boast opulence when we look at its façades. However, they too are surrounded by empty cardboard boxes, tangles of crosspieces and plastic rolls.This is a project that seeks the pattern, and the details that define the nature of theterritory that, symbolically, transports us to its sensory reality.

1 Rodrigues, A. (2018, Dezembro 4). “Chinatown” em Vila de Conde tem a maior comunidade chinesa no país. Retrieved from Renascença: https://rr.sapo.pt/noticia/132994/chinatown-em-vilade-conde-tem-a-maior-comunidade-chinesa-no-pais