© Photo: Fernando Guerra

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The Hermitage of Nossa Senhora da Conceição is a small chapel built in 1707, located in a small alleyway — Travessa Marta Pinto — adjacent to several important historical buildings in Lisbon.

This small chapel, together with two other buildings located in the same alleyway, now belong to Dr. Eduardo Fernandes. The Chapel opened in 2008, showing works by Portuguese contemporary artists.

The client’s main goals were to make people aware that the space has reopened with a new purpose and attract people to this new art gallery, especially members of the graphic design community. To transform the alleyway into a cultural venue. In that context we were invited to develop a graphic intervention in the alleyway.

One of the things that fascinated us was the Chapel’s original function as a place of worship. On the other hand, after being asked to intervene in this public space we felt compelled to «talk» to people who frequent this area.

The dual presence of divinity, on the one hand, and popular culture on the other, led us to play with idiomatic expressions in the Portuguese language that refer to God. We sought out formulae used by everyone and which by force of repetition, have crystallized in the Portuguese language, but wherein their nature as a conscious evocation of the divine still persists. This overview of popular expressions highlighted the diversity of records, proverbs and idiomatic expressions, that are mechanically repeated by each of us in our day-to-day lives.

Several examples translated into English:

1. God is good and the Devil isn’t so bad
2. God sees what the Devil hides
3. Voice of the people Voice of God
4. God save us from the bad neighbours on our doorstep
5. When God closes the door he opens a window

The texts will be read at different rhythms over the course of the day by passers-by. Direct questioning, using a three-dimensional format and multiple volumes will deliver various “interpretations”. As the text is read little by little, it will be progressively discovered.

We played with different scales and attempt to ensure that the typographic composition reinforces several of the words included within the quotations. Different volumes established various relationships with the surrounding decoration, that serve as a reference for the depths of the typography, composed with Knockout by Hoefler & Frere Jones.