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SOLAR DOS JORGES, FILME

Enquanto houver um espao livre, Jorge Soares vai acrescentar sempre novas
figuras s paredes e muros exteriores da vivenda que comprou em 1972 como
casa de frias, perto de Lisboa, onde nasceu, situada a pouca distncia da
Praia Azul, Torres Vedras. Depois de reformado e viuvo, no incio do sculo,
passou a dedicar todo o tempo s decoraes murais em fragmentos de
azulejo, s esculturas e instalaes dos objectos que foi antes coleccionando e
que continua a recolher e acumular, procura de novos usos.

Transformou todas as fachadas da antiga vivenda e deu uma nova pele s
paredes da casa e aos muros junto estrada, criou um labirinto de ruas no
jardim (com barco, poo e ponte), ergueu uma torre e hasteou uma bandeira,
gravou versos, abriu um museu privado. Todas as superfcies so invadidas
por uma figurao proliferante, catica e muitas vezes pardica, criada com
uma grande diversidade de materiais, tcnicas e inspiraes, sempre com
meios de trabalho rudimentares. a construo de um mundo pessoal, um
puzzle enciclopdico, obra de um mestre do azulejo recortado que antes de
tudo um humorista.

O Gaudi da Boavista, como j lhe chamaram, um criador compulsivo que

depois de uma vida de trabalho que ele celebra como a carreira de um lutador,

se reiventou como um artista original, seguindo

apenas as suas prprias normas e sem interesse
pelo comrcio da sua arte. Jorge Soares um
artista singular, autodidata, popular, se se quiser,
um construtor paisagista to hbil na composio e
colagem em azulejo como inesperado no uso do
objecto encontrado. Frequenta uma rea incerta
em que as classificaes so mais redutoras e
problemticas do que esclarecedoras - os rtulos
da arte bruta ou outsider no se lhe aplicam: ele
no se repete num formulrio excntrico, no
ilustra os devaneios de um visionrio, nem se
encerra num universo secreto e exclusivo. Teve
uma vida familiar e profissional de sucesso, desde
o futebol ao comrcio de vinhos, e criou depois o
tempo e a liberdade para a criao artstica.

com fragmentos cermicos e pedras que desenha

os seus painis murais povoados por guardas que
marcam o stio e defendem a propriedade, pelos
animais de um extenso e divertido bestirio, por personagens com que se
identifica ou que retrata com imaginao: So Jorge e o drago, o guerreiro
nu, as sereias e os esqueletos, as efgies da Repblica. Datas, emblemas e
representaes simblicas marcam o seu percurso de vida e reforam a
presena do humor como marca maior da sua obra. Nasceu em 1942, aponta
1972 como o incio do Solar dos Jorges e prope-se continu-lo at 2042: o
programa est gravado na pedra.

apenas para si prprio que o artista Jorge Soares trabalha, beira da
estrada, mas agrada-lhe a exposio pblica e o aplauso dos visitantes. Ao
longo do filme que o acompanhou durante quase dois anos, Jorge Soares
conduz a visita guiada sua obra, que a casa decorada e os jardins povoados
de esculturas, monumentos e objectos transformados. Conta a sua vida,
constri o personagem, inventa mais figuras ou modifica-as, comenta a sua
arte e trabalha pacientemente diante da cmara.

O SOLAR DOS JORGES com a participao de Jorge Soares

Realizao Tiago Pereira / Alexandre Pomar, 2014

Fotografias de Pedro Lobo, Tiago Pereira, Alexandre Pomar e Lusa Corteso

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SOLAR DOS JORGES, Jorges castle*

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For as long as there is an available space, Jorge Soares will keep adding new
figures to the interior and exterior walls of the villa he bought in 1972 as a
vacation home, near Lisbon, where he was born, and close to Praia Azul
(Boavista, Silveira, Torres Vedras). After he retired and became widowed, in
the beginning of the new century, he began to devote all of his time to creating
azulejo decorations and placing the objects he had since collected or rather
gathered and accumulated. He transformed every faade of the old villa and
provided the house and roadside walls with a new skin; he created a labyrinth
in the garden and named the paths after close relatives; he erected a tower and
hoisted a flag, engraved verses and opened a private museum. Every exterior
and interior surface of the house has been invaded by a proliferating, chaotic
and often parodic figuration, made from a wide diversity of materials,
techniques and inspirations, always with rudimentary resources. A personal
world was created, an encyclopedic puzzle; the work of a master of the broken
tile who is first and foremost a humorist.

Boavista's Gaudi, as he has been called, is a compulsive creator who, after a

lifetime of work that he himself celebrates as the career of a struggler, has
reinvented himself as an original artist who abides only by his own rules and
has no interest in the commercialization of his art. Jorge Soares is a self-

taught, singular, unique folk artist. A landscape builder who is as skilled in tile
composition and collage as he is surprising in the use of the objects he finds.
He operates in an ambiguous area where classifications of his work are more
reductionist and problematic than enlightening - the labels art brut or outsider
art do not apply to him: He does not repeat himself in a formula, he does not
illustrate the obsessive reveries of a visionary, nor does he confine himself to a
secret and exclusive universe. He had a successful personal and professional
life, from professional football to trading in beverages, and only found the
time and freedom for artistic creation in his later years.

Using ceramic fragments and pebbles, he designs his mural panels populated
by guards that landmark and defend his property, by the animals of his
extensive and amusing bestiary, by characters he relates to or depicts
imaginatively, (Saint George and the Dragon, the nude warrior, the mermaids
and the skeletons, the effigies of the Republic). Dates, emblems and symbolic
representations signal the course of his life and reinforce the presence of
humour as the main trait of his work. He was born in 1942, regards 1972 as
the beginning of the Solar dos Jorges, and he intends to continue his work
until 2042 : the plan is carved in stone.
Jorge Soares works only for himself, by the roadside, but he enjoys the public
exposure and the acclaim of visitors. Throughout the film that followed him
during nearly two years, Jorge Soares leads the guided tour of his work: the
decorated villa and the gardens populated by sculptures, monuments and
transformed objects. He tells the story of his life, creates the character, and
invents or modifies further figures; he comments on his art and works
patiently before the camera.

Directed by Tiago Pereira & Alexandre Pomar

Image and editing by Tiago Pereira
Photographs by Pedro Lobo, Tiago Pereira, Alexandre Pomar and Lusa
Corteso

*Solar, manor house