Front cover of The zero alternative: Ernesto de Sousa and some other aesthetic operators in Portuguese art and poetry from the 1960s onwards (OEI #80–81)

The most recent issue of OEI magazine takes its starting point in Ernesto de Sousa’s explosive activities as filmmaker, photographer, curator, critic, writer, folk art researcher, multimedia artist etc. in the Portuguese 1960s onwards. Being active in almost every­thing that belongs to the domain of the arts in the broadest sense of the word, Ernesto de Sousa (1921-1988) adopted the term “aesthetic operator” to be used instead of the word “artist” – “for the simple reason that ‘artist’ designates a kind of sociolo­gical position and not a philosophical attitude towards the world” (José Miranda Justo). As a “source of enthusiasm, dynamism and motivation” (Isabel Alves), Ernesto de Sousa created new connections between all sorts of disciplines, forms, materials and social contexts.

In its 640 page long textual and visual montage, including a series of new essays and translations of key essays, as well as a lot of archival material, OEI #80-81 also looks at the practices of a number of De Sousa’s fellow “aesthetic operators” (Alberto Carneiro, Túlia Saldanha, Álvaro Lapa, Fernando Calhau, Lourdes Castro, Ana Vieira, Ana Hatherly, E.M. de Melo e Castro, António Barros…). At the same time, OEI #80-81 encompasses texts on magazines such as Poesia Experimental, Operação, Nova, A Urtiga, and Alternativa; and works by artists from younger generations such as Isabel Carvalho, Paulo Mendes and Mariana Silva.

OEI #80–81: The zero alternative: Ernesto de Sousa and some other aesthetic operators in Portuguese art and poetry from the 1960s onwards
⁠640 pages, 2018
Ed. Jonas (J) Magnusson & Cecilia Grönberg (in collaboration with Hugo Caniolas and Tobi Maier)

Innehåll
1–3
Your body is my body is your body
(some notes for a preface)

7–12
Guincho meeting

13–19
From the void to pro vocation
Ernesto de Sousa

20–22
Projects–Ideas
Ernesto de Sousa

23–76
Alternativa Zero (preparatory sketches for the catalogue, documentations, floorplan, posters…)

25–31
[Introduction to Alternativa Zero: Polemical
tendencies in Portuguese contemporary art, 1977]
Ernesto de Sousa

77–84
A conscious creation of situations
Ernesto de Sousa

85–94
A meditative flow on Ernesto de Sousa’s conception
of modernity […]
José Miranda Justo

95–100
Graphic arts, vehicle of intimacy
Ernesto de Sousa

101–102
About the Ernesto de Sousa poster collection
Isabel Alves

103–116
Posters

117–118
An exercise of poetical communication
Ernesto de Sousa

119–126
Nós não estamos algures

127–128
Almada – a name of war
Ernesto de Sousa

129–130
Almada, a multi-media name of war
Ernesto de Sousa

131–150
Almada, um nome de guerra (notebook, posters, slides)
Ernesto de Sousa

151–166
Luiz Vaz 73

153
Luiz Vaz 73 – visual structure
Ernesto de Sousa

155
The music of Luiz Vaz 73
Jorge Peixinho

167–176
Graphic arts, language and total aesthetics
Emília Tavares

177–178
The mural of June 10th or the passage à l’acte
Ernesto de Sousa

179
The most beautiful aesthetic operation
Ernesto de Sousa

180–182
Contact sheets
Ernesto de Sousa

183
Revolução, Corpo, Tempo (Revolution, Body, Time)
Ernesto de Sousa

184–188
Revolution my body #2
Ernesto de Sousa

189–191
Revolution my body number three
Ernesto de Sousa

192–193
Revolution my body #1
Ernesto de Sousa

194–199
This is my body #3&4, Proper names and improper
names, Tradition as adventure
Ernesto de Sousa

200–202
The “new” photography
Ernesto de Sousa

203–214
The promised land
Ernesto de Sousa

205–218
Discourse / Nonsense / Display (Notes and appropriations on Ernesto de Sousa’s research into
naïve art)
Nuno Faria

219–222
Clay-modellers and icon makers – four folk artists
from the north of Portugal
Ernesto de Sousa

223–228
Ernesto de Sousa: "The right hand does not know
what the left hand is doing…"
Paula Pinto

229–240
Photographs and report from folk art reseach
Ernesto de Sousa

241–242
1.000.011th anniversary of art. CAPC, Coimbra

243–245
The vanguard is in Coimbra, the vanguard is in you
Ernesto de Sousa

246
Art in the street
Ernesto de Sousa

247–252
Semana da arte na rua and GICAP

253–254
Túlia Saldanha
Liliana Coutinho and Rita Fabiana

255–264
Túlia Saldanha

265–267
Ana Vieira
Liliana Coutinho

271–274
Desire to overtake: a project. Art, being an artist and the idea of culture in the late 70s in Portugal, a case: Fernando Calhau via Ernesto de Sousa
Maria do Mar

275–286
Fernando Calhau

287–288
Helena Almeida. From nothing to exorcism
Ernesto de Sousa

289–290
Un autre livre rouge
Paulo Pires do Vale

302–322
Un autre livre rouge
Lourdes Castro and Manuel Zimbro

317–318
The critic’s choice: Irene Buarque
Ernesto de Sousa

319–330
Irene Buarque

331–343
Field work as the work field. Alberto Carneiro and interventions in the landscape in the 1970s
Catarina Rosendo

345–346
Notes towards a manifesto of ecological art
Alberto Carneiro

347–349
Culture/ Counter/ Culture
Alberto Carneiro

350–387
Os sete rituais estéticos sobre um feixe de vimes na paisagem / Operação estética em Vilar do Paraíso / Operação estética no Alto de S.João (Aregos)
Alberto Carneiro

389–390
Ana Hatherly’s Rotura
Isabel Carlos

393–396
Conversation between Ana Hatherly and Isabel
Carlos on Rotura

399–401
Ana Hatherly and the difficult responsibility of disorder
Ernesto de Sousa

403–407
Mello E Castro. From sight to touch and gathering
Ernesto de Sousa

408–417
One can write with this
E.M. de Melo e Castro

419–421
Experimental poetry
E.M. de Melo e Castro

422–431
Concepto incerto (Concept uncertain)
E.M. de Melo e Castro

432–436
Visão segunda
E.M. de Melo e Castro

437–442
The critical experience of poetry
Ana Hatherly

443–446
The new presence of the past in the present: critical rereading of tradition
Ana Hatherly

447–454
Dialogue and openness in Portuguese experimental
poetry
Rui Torres

455–471
Poesia Experimental 1 and 2, Operação 1, Hidra 2

472–475
António Aragão

476–478
Ana Hatherly

479–478
Abílio-José Santos

481–483
António Barros

484
Words – Other Words
António Barros

485
Portuguese Visual Poetry
António Barros

486–496
Fernando Aguiar

497–499
Notes about some Portuguese experimental poets
Bruno Ministro

501–504
The body as text in Ernesto de Sousa
Sandra Guerreiro Dias

513–519
Álvaro Lapa

520–522
The prophecies of Abdul Varetti – failed writer
Álvaro Lapa

523–524
A programme called Arquipélago for an archipelago called the Algarve
Nuno Faria

525–528
The ecological and alternative movement in Portugal from the perspective of two small journals. A talk between Isabel Carvalho and José Carlos
Costa Marques

529–538
A Urtiga and Alternativa

539–544
Isabel Carvalho

545–570
O Peregrino Blindado [The Armoured Pilgrim] (The Blind Penguin) […]
Eduardo Batarda

571–572
The best way to contemplate nature is from a bicycle
Susana Lourenço Marques

573–576
Nova magazine

577
Who has taught you? — Nobody (on Elvira Leite)
Susana Lourenço Marques

579–581
Excerpts from an interview with Elvira Leite
Elvira Leite and Sofia Victorino

582–587
Elvira Leite

588
The proletarian “island” as a basic element of the urban tissue
Álvaro Siza Vieira / São Victor brigade

589
The SAAL experiment and the expanded role of the architect

590–608
Serviço Ambulatório de Apoio Local (some images and publications)

609–617
Heliografias
Mariana Silva

618–624
S de Saudade
Paulo Mendes

625–632
Visiting Ana Jotta

633–639
Supergood – dialogues with Ernesto de Sousa
Hugo Canoilas

640
Colophon