In the studio: Back at Aveiro’s Secret Cinema

For this new post of our “In the Studio” series, we bring you a few photos of our last visit to VIC - Aveiro Arts House. You can read more on this series here.

The house is located just a few meters from one of the best coffees you can drink in Portugal and next doors to the always amazing Gigões e Anantes bookshop. Credits: Miguel Barbot.

A few weeks ago, we “re-entered” Vic Aveiro Art’s House, home of VicNic and the secret cinema.

We first met the musician and producer Hugo Branco (AKA Fulano47), the mastermind behind this incredible project, a couple of years ago, when he commissioned us with the task of designing a communication strategy for all the facets of this project honouring the Branco family legacy and build a strong visual identity for their Break in Case of Emergency project (which you can see in this post).

More recently Hugo asked us to revisit and enact this plan, which focus on each of the five areas of the project: VIC NIC, a record label and book publisher; the Guest House, two floors of the building consisting of a small guest-house and an apartment to host artist in residence; Navalha, a not-for-profit managing different cultural projects; and the cultural agenda of the house, including screenings in the cinema, gigs and showcases; the legacy and estate of Vasco Branco and Maria Elisa Morais e Silva, his grandfather and grandmother, and their two sons and one daughter.

Vasco Branco was a prolific visual artist, writer, and filmmaker who worked across multiple media — from cinema to painting, from ceramics to sculpture. Hugo's mother, Rosa Alice Branco — a significant influence on his work — is a poet, philosopher, and academic specialising in the neuropsychology of perception and aesthetics. With two uncles and several cousins also working as artists, the Branco family carries a strong artistic legacy.

1-3 - updating the team on the new projects and plans. 4 - Pretty details and period features at the guest-house. Credits: Miguel Barbot

Our plan for the next couple of years encompasses a range of tools that articulate various areas and units, featuring a packed yearly agenda, including almost weekly events in the house, festivals, and close collaboration with the Aveiro City Council on various cultural endeavours, such as the Festival dos Canais.

Aveiro is a mid-sized town 50 minutes south of Porto, hosting an important university and is an industrial powerhouse, with a young population and very particular cultural dynamics. We were introduced to Hugo by a common friend, Sérgio, a culture journalist who, by then, was working in the city’s bid to host the European Culture Capital in 2026.

1. A bin of azulejo tiles at the shop; 2. Steampunk hydrophones for sale at the shop. 3. Original artworks for the VicNic record covers. 4. Sound stock. Credits: Miguel Barbot

The house itself is a gem, developed over five different floors, combining mid-century modern elements with more traditional Portuguese features. The first floor is what we could call a cultural hub, with a record store, bookshop and the headquarters of the operation.

From this floor, we can access the basement, which houses the family library and a makeshift music studio (part of it packed and shipped to the countryside, where Hugo now spends most of his time). The basement also features storage rooms filled with artworks and an archive of artworks, especially ceramics.

In a small room, we found many of Vasco’s books and magazines, spanning decades of prolific writing from scientific fiction to critique and political opinion.

1. Storage room. 2-3. Vasco Branco copies. 4. Cover samples. 5-6. Art everywhere. Credits: Miguel Barbot

1-2. Hugo and our team. Liliana, the guest-house manager, and Hugo. 3-6. The library. Credits: Miguel Barbot

1-4. Hugo’s studio leftovers. Credits: Miguel Barbot

But the most striking element of the house is also here: the secret cinema. The cinema was built around 1970, a few years before the Portuguese Carnation Revolution, which overthrew the dictatorship and ended decades of fascism. The screening room was a birthday present to Vasco, a surprise commissioned by his wife, Maria Elisa. Vasco, not only a film-maker, but a subversive film enthusiast, used this room as an underground lair for revolutionaries and other misfits, screening not only his work, but also many censored or forbidden films.