The Nature of Holidays

“Little is necessary for everything to appear differently. The date, the hour, the weather, the space's layout, one's glance or presence of mind... can make everything change.” — Rose Lowder

Traversing Batalha’s various spaces—from its cinema rooms to its foyers—A Natureza das Férias explores the variations in the rhythms and textures of time and place during the summer months through a selection of films that reflect, inhabit and play with the oneiric and chimeric “nature” of seasonal spaces of escape.
In between the beauty found in Jonas Mekas’ “Little Fragments of Paradise", recorded during summers in Montauk spent with Jackie Kennedy's family, and Mariano Llinás’ acerbically forensic analysis of Argentina’s “modern pagan cities given to the worship of the sea”, blossom Rose Lowder’s bouquets of images, meticulously gathered and arranged—in camera and en plein air—in France. Meanwhile, from the other side of the world, Tulapop Saenjaroen unveils what lies ‘beyond the frame’ in the touristic imaginary, and economy, of a Thai beach resort. In an excursion into digital space, and a reminder that travel doesn’t require leaving one’s seat, Petra Cortright and her fantastical digital landscapes offer themselves up to the gaze of a disembodied camera, as Peter Miller’s collective, global sun, constructed out of the cloud, continues to perpetually set.
An exhibition which is also an invitation to travel, recalling that films have the capacity to take us on holiday, in and of themselves.

Jonas Mekas (Sala 1)

Mariano Llinás (Sala 2)

Peter Miller (Vitrine do Piso -1)

Petra Cortright (Mural Júlio Pomar, Foyer da Sala 2)

Rose Lowder (Sala-Filme)

Tulapop Saenjaroen (Foyer da Tribuna)

Curated by Justin Jaeckle

Visiting hours: 12.00pm–8.00pm. Free entry.