The Regional Secretariat for Youth, Professional Qualification and Employment, through Centro de Artesanato e Design dos Açores (CADA), congratulates the artisans Adolfo Mendonça and David Posch for the distinctions they received at FIA – Feira Internacional de Artesanato de Lisboa, which runs until Sunday, July 2, at Parque das Nações.
Adolfo Mendonça, ceramist, with an atelier in the island of Terceira since 2017, and a degree in Equipment Design from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, was the winner of the 1st Prize “Best Contemporary Craft Piece” with “Mundos”, through which represents our sea and expresses its mission to raise public awareness of the preservation and enhancement of nature.
David Posch received an Honorable Mention in the “Best Traditional Handicraft Piece” award with a Wood Lock from COrvo. Posch, who lives on the island of Corvo, created the brand “Aparas de Madeira” in 2021 and specializes in the production of typical cedar wood locks, a product certified by the collective brand “Artesanato dos Açores”.
Maria João Carreiro, Regional Secretary for Youth, Professional Qualification and Employment, in charge of Handicrafts, praised the “good results”, stating that “they are a sign of the technical and artistic quality of our artisans in a national and international context, a historically proven fact for the prizes and mentions already awarded in special competitions”.
This year, the Government of the Azores promoted the participation of five Artisanal Production Units in FIA-Lisbon. In addition to Adolfo Mendonça and David Posch, Isabel Silva Melo, António Barreto and Sofia Afonso participated, with emphasis on innovative, sustainable productions certified by the brand “Artesanato dos Açores”.
FIA-Lisbon is the largest international handicraft fair in the Iberian Peninsula and the second largest in Europe, covering an area of 30,000 square meters of exhibition space, with more than 500 exhibitors and 31 countries represented.
The Azorean Handicrafts were also highlighted at the Seminar “Portuguese Arts and Crafts: Instruments for their Enhancement, Safeguarding and Development”, in which CADA showed the good practices of the Government of the Azores for the enhancement of our arts and crafts.