Issue B: The Colour Blue — Ilhéu Magazine

Issue B Spring 2026

Ilhéu Issue B cover spread — ‘Conversations from the Atlantic’ and ‘Pure Blue’

Ilhéu is a magazine of conversations, design, art and writing, produced and published on the Azorean island of São Miguel. The people who make Ilhéu run on the sun, the wind and the rain of the Atlantic, and we do this work for everyone who loves beautiful stories, images and words.

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And so I fell in love with a colour – in this case, the colour blue – as if falling under a spell, a spell I fought to stay under and get out from under, in turns.

Maggie Nelson, Bluets

Five Conversations on Blue

Five investigations into the least pure of all the colours — from the Paris blues of the painter António Dacosta to the architectural ruin of a six-million-euro swimming pool, from Leïla Slimani on writer’s block to Romeu Bairos on the viola da terra, all the way down to the underwater stillness of the Azorean marine park.

Conversation 1 Art António Dacosta and his Paris Blues Urbano Resendes Arlete Alves da Silva Conversation 2 Writing What’s the point trying to understand a soul? Maria Brandão Leïla Slimani Conversation 3 Music Azorean Blues Diogo Lima Romeu Bairos Conversation 4 Architecture The Pool at the Edge of the World Ilhéu Atelier José António Barbosa Conversation 5 Environment Blue Azores Adriano Quintela Bernardo Brito e Abreu

Also in this issue

Maps, playlists & interludes

Threading between the conversations: a picture essay on Dacosta’s late period, two playlists curated to set the issue’s mood, a hand-drawn map of Azorean ruins, a comic strip from Ponta Delgada, and a short story by Kathleen McCaul. Interludes that hold the page between the louder voices.

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