FITA Magazine – volume II / garden constellation
by francisca gigante , francisco teles da gama , afonso reis cabral , antónio filipe pimentel , catarina veiga , fernanda arruda , inês grosso , jiajia fei (interview), thomas mendonça (interview), antonina pawlo , antónio baião pinto
the poets led our verve and opened the gates to the infinite gardens of lisbon. fernando pessoa composed odes and disserted on the simplicity of flowers and their aromas. in the city streets we hear cesário verde declaim: “yesterday i went to visit the wild little garden / where the moon kissed us so often, / and in everything i saw the love that you gave me smile, / superb as the sun, serene as flight“. if venice clamoured for our idea, lisbon concretized it. venice and lisbon complete this journey, like sister cities.
in this second volume, you will be able to travel through the constellation of lisbon’s gardens and lose yourself in the groves among the words of curators, painters, poets, photographs, designers, composers, luthiers, and researchers. beware the satyrs and nymphs of these gardens, which will invite readers to create art and become landmarks of culture. orpheus admires your labour and talent, so robert louis stevenson leaves this message to all readers after having seen first hand the second volume of FITA Magazine: “whether upon the garden seat / you lounge with your uplifted feet / under the may’s whole heaven of blue; / or whether on the sofa you, / now grown up person being by, / do some soft corner occupy: / take you this volume in your hands / and enter into other lands, / for lo i (as children feign) suppose / you, hunting in the garden rows“.