Why Morto Vivo?

Not a day goes by at the studio where we hear an emphatic “Estúdio Morto Vivo?!” from passersby. An understandable question for a phrase that literally means “walking dead” in Portuguese. The name of our project and the space was something we gave a lot of thought. Do we have a name in English, our native tongue, or one in Portuguese— a language we are far from fluent in but strive to be. We landed on Morto Vivo to establish our want for community here in Porto. We have no intention of leaving and hope to be a mainstay in our new community for creation and conversation in sustainability.

We bring what was formerly thought trash, dead materials to most of us back to life. At Morto Vivo, we see these items that still have much life to live. Our motto is breathing life into what was once thought to be no longer with us. We hope to inspire and empower ourselves and community to think beyond what capitalism, colonialism and other harmful systems have made us believe that the things we consume are simply just that; consumable objects to be discarded when we deem them unimportant or broken.

We create solely from discarded materials. This means no new materials aside from the unavoidable and even then we dedicate to constant problem solving and idea making toward eliminating these materials. For example, in the furniture creation process for MDToo, consuming of hardware for furniture making is a major concern. The metals and mining industry are fraught with unsustainable and ethical practices and we are working on creating our own hardware using recycled aluminium and other metals. A process that will take some time and experimenting but is important for us as we strive for full circularity in the studio.

Our future vision for this space is that of one with many artists and creators working in the same frame of mind. We invite all to come and work in our studio regardless of skill level, we only ask you have a desire to create as we do. Not in a gate-keeping way but a way that we all learn together. We are not experts, though we carry a combined 10+ years of working with waste we understand that to constantly be learning and to change when we learn new ways of creating is at the core of sustainability.