On the necessity of gardening, 2024

My four-year acquaintance with Beatriz Manteigas began eighteen years too late. By then, my own Permaculture practice had evolved into a thriving homestead where pigs, sheep, ducks, geese, chickens, turkeys, fish, rabbits, pheasants, and bees cohabited amid orchards, berry patches, herb plots, veggie gardens, and mushroom logs surrounded by a meadow, woods, and stream where habitat was provided for wildlife. Now, finally, I have been granted the long-awaited opportunity to address a question that has nagged and intrigued me for twenty-two years: Are Permaculture principles applicable to art?
The following interview reveals that my stunted self-inquiries finally ripened in the fertile environment of Beatriz Manteigas’s mind. Beatriz is a Permaculturist and an artist. She aligns these practices as  NGO Director and Arts’ department coordinator of the Permaculture farm and artist residency program at Quinta das Relvas Association in Branca, Portugal. The following text reveals that she is also an astute conceptualizer and creative problem-solver. The strategies she has devised for merging art and Permaculture  demanded flexing and stretching art’s customary parameters. Her own art practices embody the insights and inspiration she gleaned from Permaculture. They not only satisfy my decades-long ponderings, they offer guidance to those whose Permaculture/art journey is just commencing. 

Excerpt from the interview with Linda Weintraub for the catalog of “O que conta é a intenção” (“it is the intention that matters”), Casa da Cerca – Contemporary Art Center, April 2025.