Patrik Proško

City – site-specific intervention, 1800 × 350 × 30 cm, mixed media, Ponta do Sol, Santo Antão, Cape Verde, 2024 The bizarrely romantic architecture of Cape Verdean houses is highly distinctive—both in its bold colors and in shapes that seem entirely incompatible to a European eye, to the point of being accepted as a style in its own right. Most houses in Cape Verde remain unpainted, left in a rough construction state. Not everyone can afford paint, and they typically invest in something more essential. One exception is the village of Fontainhas, perched atop a nearly inaccessible cliff and painted entirely in bright colors. It lies near the town of Ponta do Sol, where I stayed. This installation is both a chromatic and spatial reflection of a very specific locale—a “colorful city” on a cliff, set against an otherwise uncolored neighborhood.