Lisbon Comes Alive
Seth Sherwood, based in Paris, is a frequent contributor to the Travel section of Herald Tribune (International). He wrote an excelente article about Lisbon. You can find some highlights below and read the full article here.
(...) The last of the West European capitals to experience a cultural bloom, Lisbon is avidly making up for lost time. All over the city, an upstart generation is laying waste to the sepia-toned stereotypes and gleefully constructing edgy and forward-looking ventures amid the time-worn monuments and quaint cobbled lanes.
"I remember being a kid and thinking, 'Nothing happens in Lisbon. Why should we have to go abroad to see stuff happening and new stuff and to get inspired?' " said Nuno Pinho, 33, co-owner of a gallery called In-Cubo that opened last year. "Now there are so many things happening in Lisbon that you can't get to everything - concerts, exhibitions." (...)
(...) A former antiques store, In-Cubo is devoted to graffiti and other contemporary urban art forms. Similar renovations are taking place throughout the neighborhood, Principe Real, where dilapidated buildings are filling with concept stores, galleries and boutiques. A short walk away, a formerly louche strip club called Cabaret Maxime has reopened as a much-ballyhooed new nightclub for the city's most unusual and alternative bands and performance outfits. Throw in Lisbon's new
world-class art museum, the Berardo Collection Museum, and a nascent fashion scene, and you have Western Europe's fastest-rising cultural center.(...)
(...) And as the city's cool factor has surged, so has its international profile. MTV Europe held its music awards in Lisbon in 2005. Last year, the influential London-based World Travel and Tourism Council held its annual convention there. If anything, the global spotlight seems likely to get even more intense thanks to a bevy of high-profile international festivals that have started in recent years, including the biennial ExperimentaDesign (next up in 2009) and the Lisbon Architecture Triennale (coming again in 2010). (...)
(...) "Lisbon can now show the world that it can be a modern and contemporary art center," said the museum's director, Jean-François Chougnet, who formerly oversaw France's vast network of public museums. Equally important, the Berardo can help introduce the wider world to Portugal's many talented artists, Chougnet said. (...)
(...) "I think Lisbon has a very, very good chance to be a transcultural platform for the creative industries in the future, because we have such good weather, food, unused spaces" and low prices, said Serpa, sporting an elegant tieless suit and eating a cookie. "Architecture, design, art, photography and literature will all be involved." (...)
Go Here to read the full article - it is worthily
