Art exhibition held in Portugal's UNESCO World Heritage site

A contemporary art exhibition entitled "Point of View"is being held here in Sintra, the UNESCO world heritage site some 30 km northwest of the Portuguese capital Lisbon.

Ten renowned contemporary artists including Portuguese artists Alexandre Farto (Vhils) and Gabriela Albergaria, German artist Nils-Udo and British artist Stuart Ian Frost, were invited to choose their "point of view" and build an installation using mostly materials from the environment in the park, to explore the relationship between man and nature.

The artworks are left unattended during the whole year so as to be purposely affected by the weather.

For instance, Nils-Udo's "Clearing," a green patch of grass, surrounded by trees and a giant stone, is starting to dry out in a corner.

Ian Frost's "Spore" made of cork and acacia wood with a shape like a log, had a perfectly flat surface when it was installed and is now full of undulation.

One of the main purposes of the exhibition is to tempt visitors to venture into the park. Visitors are not as easily tempted to take a walk through the site's gardens and parks, technical director of Parques de Sintra, Nuno Oliveira, told Xinhua.

Oliveira added that initiatives like this have helped the number of visitors to the park grow significantly.

The exhibition will end on May 25, 2017.

Sintra was classified as a World Heritage site in 1995 and received 2 million visitors last year. Endit