Shall we run together? 40th anniversary of Teatro Art'Imagem

Photo: Nuno Ribeiro 

From 10 to 12 May, I participated in the meeting 40 Years of Theatre: How theatre has developed in the last 40 years in Portugal, celebrating the anniversary of Teatro Art’Imagem. On the first day, we attended the play “Ai o Medo Que (Nós) Temos de Existir”, the company’s 117th creation. In the following days, we had the opportunity to reflect on four themes:

Panel 1: Theatre and Intervention
with Sara Barros Leitão, José Leitão, Rita Alves Miranda and José Soeiro 

Panel 2: Theatre: Praxis and the Academia
with Fernando Matos Oliveira (University of Coimbra), António Capelo (ACE), Manuela Bronze (ESMAE), Francesca Rayner (University of Minho) and Eugénia Vasques 

Panel 3: Theatrical Decentralisation
with Helena Santos, Jorge Baião (Dramatic Center of Évora), Rui Madeira (Braga Theater Company), Magda Henriques (Comédias do Minho) and Américo Rodrigues (DGArtes) 

Panel 4: Minorities and Theatre
with Flávio Hamilton, Zia Soares, Marta Lança, Francesca Negro, Vanesa Sotelo and Maria João Vaz

It was up to me to make the closing comments, sharing my reflections on what was discussed over the two days. Here they are:

Whose story is it to tell?

National Museum of African-American History and Culture, Washington D.C. (Photo: Justin T. Gellerson / NYT)

I first heard of Emmet Till in 2017, when Dana Schutz’s painting “Open Casket”, on display at the Whitney Biennale, sparked a huge controversy. Emmet Till was brutally murdered, lynched, in 1955, after being accused of having offended a white woman in her grocery store. This murder boosted the Civil Rights Movement in the US. Emmet's mother, Mamie Till, asked that the coffin remain open during her son's funeral for people to see. Her words welcome visitors to the National Museum of African American History and Culture: “Let the people see what I have seen. I think everybody needs to know what had happened to Emmet Till.”

A few more thoughts on the cultural boycott

State Hermitage Museum

I follow intensely the news about the invasion in Ukraine, thinking of ways in which we could contribute and be useful, both as individuals and as professionals in the cultural sector. My starting point is that Culture is anything but apolitical and, within this context, one of the most controversial topics is that of the cultural boycott.

Things are moving fast. Just three days ago, I wrote that I wasn’t aware of any formal action to cancel Russian artists just because they were Russian or to remove Russian composers from concert programmes. Then, on Saturday I read Javier C. Hernández’s article in The New York Times about Russian artists being expected to “clarify their position” regarding Putin; about young pianist Alexander Malofeev’s concert being cancelled in Vancouver “for his own safety”; or the Polish National Opera dropping a production of Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov… This is definitely how things can get out of hand. Malofeev himself wrote on Facebook that “The truth is that every Russian will feel guilty for decades because of the terrible and bloody decision that none of us could influence and predict.” I wonder whether it was “satisfactory” enough…

Cultural boycott

 

Elena Kovalskaya. Screenshot from Facebook.

A few days ago, thousands of Russian artists signed an open letter denouncing the invasion in Ukraine. “On behalf of our professional community, it is important to say that further escalation of the war will result in irreversible consequences for workers in culture and the arts. Engagement with culture and the arts will be almost impossible in these conditions.”

It is impossible, for people on both sides and beyond; for all of us. It is impossible in the sense that the show can’t simply go on and it cannot be business as usual. It just cannot.

The cultural habits… of the Portuguese cultural organisations

 

“Many people are uncomfortable with the label ‘the arts’ and associate it only with either the visual arts or ‘high art’, such as ballet or opera. (…) At the same time, most people in this country have active cultural lives and value opportunities to be creative.” These two sentences were not taken from the Gulbenkian Foundation's study on the cultural habits of the Portuguese. They were taken from Arts Council England´s Let's Create document, which presents its strategy for the 2020-2030 decade. In the Portuguese context, the former sentence sounds very familiar; the Gulbenkian study does not confirm the latter, but it could be a wish. Will it…?

Having time, sparing time

 

S. Miguel, Azores (Photo: Maria Vlachou)

A few days ago, I read an interview with Greek film director Sotiris Tsafoulias, in which he said: “Being an artist is not a profession. A woman who has five children, no husband, cleans stairs and still puts a bowl of water for a stray dog ​​or looks at us and says 'good morning', to me she is an artist. A person does not become an artist when they pick up a microphone, a brush or a pen. The way a person deals with ugliness, the way they metabolise it and give it back as goodness or light, the way they position themselves in the darkest moments of their life, for me, this is what makes a person an artist, regardless of profession."

National theatres: mission (im)possible?

On the occasion of its reopening to the public, after renovation works, the National Theatre S. João (NTSJ) organised a promising international colloquium on the theme “National Theatres: missions, tensions, transformations”. In its own words, this would be “an event of multiple-voiced reflection that is also intended as a self-questioning gesture: an international conference in which we will provide an inter pares diagnosis and prognosis for an institution that, though somewhat ancient, remains very much alive.”

With his opening speech, Pedro Sobrado, Chairman of the Board, reinforced our expectations through an extensive questioning: