Cultura em Expansão is back with 68 performances till the year ends

Keeping this mission going of taking culture anywhere in the city of Porto is well telling of the success of the programme “Cultura em Expansão”. This is the municipal programme’s eight edition, with enhanced cultural creations and artistic residencies. The stars of the show are no other than the communities of the parishes of Pasteleira, Miragaia, Bouça and Campanhã. However, the performance agenda extends to everywhere in Porto, from May to December, in a total of 68 events, from cinema to dance, and music to theatre.

“As we realise the sphere of the other, we realise that it is not homogeneous, that each sphere has its own completely different reality, and that is why it is so important that this programme continues to pioneer the city, making it a brave city, which can be challenged and debated”, affirmed Rui Moreira.

This initiative, which the Mayor of Porto deems not a victim of the pandemic, but rather a shipwrecked programme, whose cultural agenda had to be postponed to 2021, was presented yesterday at the Associação Nun'Alvares, in Campanhã. “There was no waste, but rather time bought”, ensured Rui Moreira.

Highlighting that in the beginning of the project, when Paulo Cunha e Silva, then councillor for Culture of porto City Hall, rejected the denomination “Cultura Fora de Sítio” [“Off-site Culture”, free translation] because “every site is a site”, Rui Moreira thanked Guilherme Blanc, Cultura em Expansão Programme Coordinator, who was nominated Artistic Director of the do Batalha Centro de Cinema, for all the work carried out.

In turn, Guilherme Blanc affirmed that the Cultura em Expansão programme “is a highly crystalline mirror glass of his vision [Rui Moreira] regarding culture in the city, because it is a generous project, a demanding one, but highly committed to people, artists, and a project of a high financial investment, which is also symbolic and ethic”.

The 8th edition of the Cultura em Expansão will centre its programming - built in partnership with the Teatro do Frio, Visões Úteis, Confederação and Sonoscopia – in four main poles: the Associação de Moradores do Bairro Social da Pasteleira-Previdência/Torres, the Grupo Musical de Miragaia, the Associação de Moradores de Bouça and the Associação Nun’Álvares de Campanhã.

Artistic residencies and free workshops

Culture commences on 28 May, with “Cozinha(s)”, by the Teatro Experimental do Porto (TEP), in Bouça, and the following day, Pedro Lamares and Lúcia Moniz play, in Campanhã, "Para atravessar contigo o deserto do mundo", a plot from the friendship and exchanged letters between Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen and Jorge de Sena.

The 14 artistic residencies feature “Para Vós”, by Cláudia Dias and “Wave Dance Lab + 55”, by Gonçalo Alvarez, both targeted at senior audiences, in Campanhã and in Pasteleira, respectively; “Silvar”, a project by drummer Ricardo Martins, with the Banda Marcial of Foz do Douro; “Brado – Encontro de Vozes em Canto Cigano”, by Margarida Mestre, a joint creation with the Orchestra Ciga-nos eand the communities of Contumil and Lagarteiro; “A-JUN-TA-MENTO”, by ondamarela with groups from the four main territories of the Cultura em Expansão, as well as “Travessia”, a project by CRL - Central Elétrica with the Brazilian community that resides in Porto.

The programme still features three free workshops with Cláudia Dias, in the framework of the project “Segunda-feira: ATENÇÃO À DIREITA!”; José Quevedo, with the Teatro Lambe-Lambe; and José Gil (S.A. Marionetas), who shares with the public the traditional art of the Teatro Dom Roberto.

The timetable also includes the concerts by B Fachada, Pop Dell’Arte, Maria João/Ogre Electric, DJ Marfox, Angélica Salvi and Alexandre Soares (Três Tristes Tigres), outdoor summer performances and different initiatives in numerous parts of the city.

This presentation was finalised with the performance by JP Simões & Amigos, who paid a tribute to José Mário Branco, which was attended by the vice-Mayor of Porto City Hall, Filipe Araújo, councillors Catarina Araújo, Cristina Pimentel, Fernando Paulo and Pedro Baganha, councillor for CDU, Ilda Figueiredo, and the chairman of the parish council of Campanhã, Ernesto Santos.

This show was part of last year’s Cultura Em Expansão programme, at the Resident’s Association of Bouça.

All information regarding the programme can be consulted in theofficial website launched last April, as well on Facebook and on Instagram.