2018 | 1st Edition

Papel de Areia - Fascículo 10

Katalin Deér

TourismOportoCrisisArchitecture

"This is one possible narrative among many others that could be composed from an extensive series of images taken by Katalin Deér in 2011. It seems like it was only yesterday, but that Porto we once knew no longer exists. Countering the tendency for people to abandon the centre, and having overcome the economic crisis, the city now seems to have been born again, resuscitated mainly by tourism. Foreigners have brought with them their new foreign habits and tastes (gentrification and Disneyfication), and there are obvious signs of a growing uniformity, with an overall loss of “authenticity”. Little now remains that is “genuine” or “real”. But what, after all, is the real Porto? Is it the bourgeois city? Is it the Porto of the Ilhas – the small working--class dwellings built in the backyards of middle-class houses? The people of Porto in party mood, celebrating the night of São João? Is it all of this, or just simply those days when the wet granite reflects the bright sunlight?" Pedro Bandeira, 2018