Promoted by Faro City Council, the Gama Rama Gallery, and Na Mouche – Cultural Association, the BlueTour project focuses on “sustainable cultural tourism” and “involves three locations, the city of Ancona, in Italy, the island of Lesbos, in Greece, and Faro”, in Portugal, which are part of “coastal areas” and are “a great representation of mass tourism”, stated Miguel Neto, from the organisation.

“This project has emerged so that we can think together, in a European context, about how we can face the challenges that this type of tourism entails and at the same time reinvent ourselves and create alternative sustainable tourism routes”, said Miguel Neto in statements to Lusa news agency.

The project has European funding, through the Creative Europe Programme, which involves associations and organisations from the three cities and will, between Sunday and 8 November, leave its mark on the artistic and cultural activity of the locations involved, he stressed.

In Faro, one of the artists involved is the designer from Faro André Silva Sancho, who will create “a piece of public work, to be launched at the beginning of November, in the riverside area of ​​Faro”, but “with a date yet to be defined”, mentioned Miguel Neto.

Silva Sancho anticipated, quoted in a statement from the organisation, that the “sculpture invites the community to reflect on the power of change and the importance of maintaining cultural identity in the face of the pressures of tourism and gentrification”.

Another of the organisation's highlights is the presence of German artist Yvonne Robert, who will be at Galeria Gama Rama from 26 to 28 September, in an artistic residency that will later result in an “immersive exhibition that explores the local biodiversity” of the Ria Formosa and is scheduled to open on 27 September at 5 pm.

The creation of a mural, between Friday and 26 September, the day of its opening, on a wall of the Faro train station, is another of the planned cultural and artistic initiatives, called Os Ciclos, which will be inspired by “the tides, the phases of the moon, the seasons, marine life, fishing and tourism”, themes related to Faro and the Ria Formosa, he pointed out.

Among the project's concerns is the need for tourist destinations to maintain their characteristics and, “in a way, remain the same as themselves, because that is also what has attracted people to come to the Algarve”, stressed Miguel Neto.

According to this member of the organisation, the aim is also to create “an alternative artistic and cultural route” that will make the city more attractive, based on the idea that Faro “has to reinvent itself, but at the same time maintain its authenticity”, in the face of the increasing pressure from tourism in these coastal areas of southern Europe, he added.

“This transformation is essential for Faro, as a coastal city and tourist destination”, like other locations, “to reaffirm its uniqueness and offer visitors a genuinely Algarve experience”, he concluded.