In preparation for the year 2020, ESAD.CR committed to organizing a significant exhibition at the Centro Cultural e de Congressos in Caldas da Rainha. A school like ESAD.CR must open itself to the community. The challenge was set: how do we take the School beyond its building, into a new dimension that is impactful and transformative?

Being young and agile, we easily decided to showcase a lesser-known yet essential dimension of ESAD.CR’s distinct existence: the work that its professors create outside the School. Since its inception, ESAD.CR has developed a teaching approach based on a close relationship between faculty and students, where the professional practice of professors—as authors—is fundamental to the porous experience of learning and making. All ESAD.CR professors are authors.

The entire faculty was invited to participate, regardless of the permanence of their contractual ties with the Polytechnic of Leiria.

Thus, the School revealed itself through one of the bodies that constitute it—represented by about 80 individuals who accepted the invitation and contributed a piece to the exhibition and this catalog.

“The whole is always less than the sum of its parts.”
This paradoxical statement applies to the PROFS exhibition in the context of the School’s outreach to the community. ESAD.CR is defined by many contours—bodies, ideas, and gestures—sometimes emotional, sometimes oriented toward achieving global evaluation and comparison metrics, often liberating. But at its core, it is defined by transformative relationships, by the space that connects each of us to the School and the world, in the “multiplicity of all singular differences”—in freedom.

PROFS – Contemporary Authors in the 30 Years of ESAD.CR is an edition that not only documents the PROFS – Contemporary Authors at ESAD.CR exhibition as an ephemeral event, bound to a specific time and place, but also extends participation to a number of other professors—also authors—whose work does not necessarily fit within the gallery or auditorium format.

The essayistic format, whether written or visual, as well as theoretical or scientific articles, are authorial records commonly produced by this faculty community. The book format embraces this diversity to the fullest, striving to fulfill the promise of representing it.

Adriana Sá, Ana João Romana, Ana Sacramento, Ana Teresa Ascensão, Ana Teresa Vicente, António Costa, António Silveira Gomes (Barbara Says…), Aprígio Morgado, Bruno Santos (Mantraste), Carla Cardoso, Carla Lobo, Catarina Câmara Pereira e João dos Santos, Catarina Leitão, Célia Bragança, Célia Gomes, Celso Martins, David Cabrita, Diogo Alvim, Diogo Dória, Diogo Saldanha, Emanuel Brás, Fernando Brízio, Fernando Carradas, Fernando Galrito, Fernando Oliveira, Fernando Poeiras, Filipe Alarcão, Gonçalo Pena, Henrique Ralheta, Isabel Aboim Inglez, Isabel Baraona, Isabel Fernandes e Nuno Fragata, Ivo Oliveira Rodrigues, Joana Morais, João B. Serra, João Catarino, João Maio Pinto, João Mateus, João Pombeiro, João Vinagre, José Eduardo Rocha (JER), José Luís Silva, Leonor Areal, Lígia Afonso, Luis Aguiar, Luís Favas, Luisa Baeta, Luísa Soares de Oliveira, Marco Heleno,Marco Nunes Correia, Marco Reixa, Maria Ramos,  Margarida Tavares, Mário Caeiro, Marta Soares, Miguel Castro Caldas, Miguel Macedo, Miguel Valverde, Miguel Vieira Baptista, Nuno Bettencourt, Nuno Fragata, Paula Dona, Paulo Quintas, Paulo Silva, Pedro Letria, Pedro Moura, Pedro Ramos, Raquel Melgue, Renato Bispo, Ricardo Castro, Ricardo Dantas (Itemzero studio), Ricardo Jacinto, Ricardo Pimentel (Candido Efeémer), Ricardo Santos, Ruben Santos, Roberta Frontini, Rodrigo Silva, Rui Dias, Rute Rosa e Sérgio Vieira (Laboratório d’Estórias), Sara Orsi, Sara Vaz e Marco Balesteros, Sílvia Moreira, Sílvia Pinto, Susana Anágua, Susana Gaudêncio, Teresa Fradique, Teresa Luzio, Vitor Agostinho (Moldes Mutantes), Vitor Reis