Desenrascanço

Desenrascanço 

(the act of disentangling yourself from a difficult situation using available means)

Desenrascanço, a word that has no direct English translation, alludes to the circumstances by which both the city of Marinha Grande and the first international exhibition by the London-based artist collective, Melt Club, have come to be: unorthodox solutions, born out of necessity, nestled in the soil from which a site-specific body of work has germinated. 

Beginning their process with the history of the area, Melt Club has revived the once sprawling Pinhal de Leira in a textile installation that highlights the city’s intrinsic relationship to its forest. Offering the solution to Leiria’s sand-eroding farmlands, a bountiful resource of material for Portugal’s Royal Glassworks, and a cradle for an emerging community led by industry, the Pinhal de Leiria has frequently become a site of tension between ecological chance and human decision-making – this is where Desenrascanço takes its roots.

At the core of the installation is a focus on the use of fabric as a medium, which began similarly as an unorthodox solution for the practical challenge of transporting artworks across a continent. By embracing this condition, the group have explored the medium’s historic uses as an artefact for storytelling and record-keeping, culminating in the production of a patchwork that moves playfully between references to both quilt-making and tapestry. Through gestural stitchwork, Melt Club has collaged the varying practices and perspectives of each of its eight artists to create a collective depiction of Marinha Grande, merging past and present. 

Much like its inconvertible title, the work occupies the awkwardness of its own translation comfortably. A group of artists creating work based on a largely unfamiliar place is, at its core, quite awkward. Desenrascanço accepts this fact proudly, offering an outsider's perspective and relishing the opportunity to explore an exciting corner of Portuguese culture. 

Running alongside the physical work is a classical composition also made by the group, Ashes to Ashes, which patches together traditional and contemporary instrumentation in response to the Pinhal de Leiria’s turbulent history and recent years. It is available for listening within the space. Additionally, accompanying the show will be a series of workshops in which Melt Club will invite visitors to creatively add their own experiences to the ongoing and collective three-hundred year story of Marinha Grande.