Grupo do Risco.
The relationship through drawing (2022)

This work seeks to interrogate the relationship between art and the environment in the context of the current environmental crisis, investigating whether artistic practice can influence perception and integration into the “natural” environment, contributing to a more balanced ecological interaction between humanity and the rest of the species. This problem is investigated through the ethnography of the Grupo do Risco collective, observing and analyzing the perception and interaction of its members with the “natural” environment, where they practice observational drawing. The study is inspired by a multidisciplinary theoretical framework that questions the “nature/culture” division as one of the causes of the current ecological crisis. This article reviews alternative proposals for more harmonious environmental interaction, questioning the importance of direct and sensory contact with the “natural” environment. It observes how the artistic practice of the Grupo do Risco can be an inspiring example, through the dissemination of graphic representations of the places and species depicted, but above all through the specificity of the collective’s social and environmental relationship, mediated and reinforced by the practice of drawing.

Text published in the book Anthology of Essays Commitments to the Environment: 50 Years of the Stockholm Conference (1972-2022), edited by Paula André. Based on the research for the master's thesis in anthropology Grupo do Risco. The relationship through drawing.
Available here (in portuguese).

Reference: Ribeiro, Sónia Mota. 2022. «Grupo do Risco. A relação pelo desenho», in Paula André, Antologia de Ensaios Compromissos com o Meio Ambiente: 50 anos da Conferência de Estocolmo (1972-2022) (75-87). Lisboa: DINÂMIA’CET-IUL.

Read the full article (in portuguese) here.