Portuguese Shoes Campaign 2022
Walking side by side, the footwear industry has celebrated the arts and the national culture for 12 years. In 2022, APICCAPS pays homage to the works and main artists of the Portuguese painting scene that symbolize what distinguishes us as a country, civilization and collective personality. It is what makes us unique in a world ever more open, diverse and globalized.
If in 2021, amid the global pandemic, the Portuguese shoes made a eulogy for the poetry of the bodies of models and dancers, as a token of strength and gracefulness, resilience and liberty, wondering "can the industry be an art form?”, this year, carrying on the mission, APICCAPS reinforces the premise that the industry can be an ally of artists, creating singular moments and objects of desire.
Thus, it has elected six Portuguese painters of reference (Amadeu de Souza Cardoso, Almada Negreiros, Eduardo Afonso Viana, José Malhoa, Júlio Pomar and Paula Rego) and two of the most talented actors today, Albano Jerónimo and Anabela Moreira, to perform some of the selected artists most emblematic works.
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Anabela Moreira, on the other hand, believes that "culture is beyond what makes me and what I go on making. It is also what we grow. A vast memory, structuring, that distinguish us and at the same time provides identity. Culture objectifies our subjectivity. I am, beyond many and various things, Portuguese. This culture that precedes me is honoured here in a piece of our enormous heritage. I could not be happier for being allowed somehow to become a part of it. Thank you for the opportunity of revisiting some of our biggest and wearing in my feet one of the best industries of my country”, considers the actress Anabela Moreira.
Can the art and tradition of a country be worn by your feet?
For Luís Onofre, "more than praising national talent and portraying an identity, these campaigns aim to open one door to the outside world”. "At their core, they intend to value the heritage of the past and what we do best, to make our quality and beauty appreciated by everyone. In an increasingly fast and unstable world, by intersecting with other talents and cultures, we intend to be an example of something that charms, continues, and lasts, but is always improving itself towards the future”, concluded the President of APICCAPS.
There is always magic in knowing how to do very well, with an author’s regard, in selecting the best materials, features, details and charms; made with care, time and dedication that lasts for generations. As in painting or cinema, music, dance, theatre, fashion, the footwear sector (within fashion) is an art form of Portuguese tradition, but also of modernity, because it is alive and throbbing, and it walks with us every day.
"We always presume that culture conveys knowledge and acts on the language and behaviour of those who receive it, helping us to get to know each other better to save ourselves together”, defends Albano Jerónimo. It matters, thus, to promote the "defence of the word or the importance of culture”. "In times of crisis – he added – culture is directly related with knowledge and the exercise of thought, which are essential values for the development of the society, our identity and restless spirits, in reality and in the edge of restlessness, always in the search for empathy and the ability to relate with the other”. "For me, culture is this heartbeat that, when it stops, the prevailing social order perverts or annihilates the creative ability of most men, reducing the possibility for creation, and here culture is, and it will always be, the ancient answer to the human’s pain, the certainty of death and the weapon against the sterilization of the human consciousness”.
According to Albano Jerónimo, "this work enables us to feel the heartening strength of those who clash with the norms of the masses through culture and art. Here, we get to feel that timeless vibration of a part or the fingerprint of the pertinence of reinventing ourselves using this alphabet. This recreation not only displays the importance of our country’s legacy artistic, but, above all, the strength of its impression on our artists today and the importance of honouring this beautiful legacy and heritage of our Portuguese being”.