© João Peixoto
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A VIAGEM
[The Journey] is a new project developed by choreographer and performer
Filipa Francisco. In it, she works with folk dance groups in various phases: a preparation phase
in which folk dancers are introduced to contemporary dance, a period of artistic residency
and, finally, presentation of the finished piece. The folk dancers are co-creators of the
performance, bringing their specific imagery to the vocabularies of contemporary and
traditional dance. A VIAGEM also incorporates professional dancers, building bridges between
‘worlds’ that do not often come into contact.
Duration 50 mins (aprox.)
CREDITS
Concept and artistic direction Filipa Francisco
Assistant to the artistic director Pietro Romani
Performers David Marques, Antónia Buresi, Grupo Folclórico da Corredoura
Costumes Ainhoa Vidal
Music António Pedro, Grupo Folclórico da Corredoura
Lighting design and technical direction Mafalda Oliveira
Executive producer Filipa Achega
Co-produced by Mundo em Reboliço, Festival Materiais Diversos, Guimarães 2012 –
European Capital of Culture, Teatro Virgínia (Torres Novas)
Acknowledgements alkantara, Rancho Folclórico “Os Camponeses” de Riachos,
Rancho Folclórico da Gouxaria, Rancho Folclórico de Torres Novas
Financed by Presidência do Conselho de Ministros – Secretaria de Estado da
Cultura/Direcção-Geral das Artes
A NOTE ABOUT THE ARTIST
Filipa Francisco’s artistic creations are intimately connected to her own reflections and
research on the social and political functions of art. Filipa is dedicated to creating encounters
with the audience, even – especially – when this means dislocating her artistic work to spaces
where the possibility of that encounter are greater.
In a letter exchanged with Basque choreographer Idoia Zabaleta (co-creator of the piece
“Dueto”), Filipa rearticulates her concern for the political nature of art and reaffirms her
interest in working in and with communities: “If I were to construct a space for a body to move,
what kind of space would it be? To construct a space or use those that already exist, planting
them like mushrooms or viruses in abandoned spaces, in peripheral neighbourhoods like Cova
da Moura (in the Lisbon periphery) or next to big theatres – this seems to me to be an
interventionist and political act.” (19 September 2005)
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This spirit has led Filipa to participate in artistic projects with groups of prison inmates
(Projecto Re-existir), creating with them the widely-toured piece “Nu Meio”. She has also
worked with teenagers as part of social reintegration programmes in educational centres. She
coordinated a long-term contemporary dance programme in the ‘critical’ neighbourhood Cova
da Moura, from which came the piece “Íman” (Magnet), distinguished in the national
newspaper Público as “the best dance piece of 2008.” In Ramallah, Palestine, she led a
workshop with Carlos Pez for the El-Founoun Traditional and Contemporary Dance Company.
The desire to work with traditional dance groups springs from this experience in Ramallah:
“Travelling with the group in Palestine, watching their performances in small villages, I realised
how powerful traditional dance is. It addresses very topical issues like identity, gender and
liberty. The act of dancing, for these young people, was actually a cry of freedom, a way of
liberating themselves from the difficult memories of war.”
As an artist Filipa is interested in creating territories of questioning, creating access to art in
improbable places, allowing her work to mirror the world and creating deeper relationships
between art and life. She is interested in fostering places of action, discussion, construction,
resistance; generating discussion about dance as a motor for change.
A NOTE ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE
Brazilian painter and sculptor Lygia Clark writes: “The feeling I have is that we will return to
that time in which art was such an anonymous part of life that there was no such thing as an
artist as a name, as a myth. People created naturally, almost like the act of eating, making
love, living, but without the preoccupation of being an artist. In my opinion everyone has,
potentially, the capacity to create.
Now, if a person is conditioned by an unfavourable environment, she will end up not creating.
And that blockage – consumer society, current conditioning – makes a lot of people keep their
sensibilities to themselves. Traditional dances, in our collective imagination, are expressions of
popular, regional traditions, associated with folk art. They continue to be relevant today,
representing a wealth of customs and traditions passed from one generation to the next
through song, movement and costume.
In 1999, the United Nations instituted a programme entitled “Masterpieces of Immaterial
Cultural Heritage” designed to “distinguish the most notable examples of cultural spaces or
forms of popular and traditional expression such as languages, oral literature, music, dance,
games, mythology, rituals, costumes, handicrafts, architecture and other arts, as well as
traditional forms of communication and information.
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As well as distinguishing us as peoples, folk traditions attract outside curiosity, create
employment, encourage tourism and contribute to the integral development of a territory. An
important part of our heritage, folk dancing need not be relegated to the margins of
modernity (nor does modernity come from the annulment of tradition). As a living art form, it
obeys a series of social rules and processes. Well-known Argentine anthropologist Néstor
García Canclini proposes a different approach to traditional and popular culture in
contemporaneity based on an understanding of culture in its social context. It is in this sense
that this particular project gains relevance.
A VIAGEM problematizes the way in which manifestations of folk art or culture adhere to and
seek modernity, creating new meanings, appropriations and understandings of its role in
today’s world. In the words of the Brazilian curator Paulo Sérgio Duarte: “What is necessary is
not to rethink a theory of contemporary art but rather a contemporary theory of art that can
account for poetic processes regardless of the origin of the work…”
OBJECTIVES
A VIAGEM aims to awaken audiences to new forms of cultural fruition of art and heritage. It
promotes encounters between local artists of so-called folk culture and contemporary artists
for the mutually enriching transmission of know-how. The project addresses how traditions
are maintained in modernity, their re-appropriation and reformulation and is an opportunity
for the creation of new forms of artistic and cultural expression.
In sum, the project aims to:
≥ Foment, preserve and understand the importance of choreographic heritage and
composition;
≥ Foment, preserve and understand the importance of our folk musical heritage;
≥ Affirm contemporary dance as an articulation between different artistic areas;
≥ Contribute to a spirit of renovation and contemporaneity in folk dancing;
≥ Work with the body, space, music and objects (namely costumes);
≥ Contribute to the decentralisation and democratisation of culture and increase the critical
expectations of audiences;
≥ Promote intercultural dialogue and foment new appropriations and understandings of the
role of folk culture in contemporary society.
BIOGRAPHIES
FILIPA FRANCISCO studied at Escola Superior da Dança in Lisbon, with the Trisha Brown
Company and at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York and with dramaturge André Lepecki.
She has worked with the choreographers and directors Francisco Camacho, Vera Mantero,
Silvia Real, Madalena Vitorino, Rui Nunes, Aldara Bizarro, among others. Recent production
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highlights include Leitura de Listas with André Lepecki, Dueto created with Basque
choreographer Idoia Zabaleta, Para Onde Vamos?, part of the celebrations of the Centenary of
the Republic, and Vento & Pássaros for young audiences. She has developed training and
creation projects with prison inmates in Castelo Branco (Project REXISTIR). In 2007/2008 she
coordinated Nu Kre Bai Na Bu Onda – a training and creation project in the Cova da Moura
neighbourhood that resulted in the performance Íman. Filipa Francisco is an associate artist at
Materiais Diversos.
PIETRO ROMANI was born in Lisbon in 1974. After completing a course in photography at
AR.CO – Center for Art and Visual Communication – he began studying dance with Francisco
Camacho in 1996. Highlights from his training include courses with Francisco Camacho, Donna
Uchizono, António Carallo, Ronald Burchi and Fabrizio Pazzaglia. Since 1997, he has worked
with different choreographers as an assistant and performer. As a dancer, he has worked with
Carlota Lagido, Francisco Camacho and Filipa Francisco. He also participated in an
experimental project with Les Ballets C de la B in Lisbon. As an actor, he has appeared in two
films by José Álvaro Morais and in plays by Francisco Camacho, Gary Stevens and Paulo
Mendes/ Miguel Pereira. Highlights from his work as an assistant include collaborations with
Francisco Camacho, Miguel Pereira, Vera Mantero, Filipa Francisco, Paula Castro, Tânia
Carvalho and Tiago Guedes.
ANTONIO PEDRO is a percussionist, multi-instrumentalist and filmmaker. He has composed
music for films by Ivo M. Ferreira, Margarida Leitão, Leonor Noivo, videos by Vasco Diogo and
performances by Le Luxe, Compagnie Sac a Dos, Turak, O Bando, Teatro Serra de
Montemuro, Colectivo SOPA and Miguel Abreu, among others. He has performed live
soundtracks for films by Buster Keaton (Sherlock Jr.), Fédor Khitruk (Matinée), Oscar
Fishinger, Hans Ritcher and Robert Breer, film-concerts commissioned by MONSTRA,
Mediateca da GUARDA and Festival INDIE. He directed Bigodes Band, inspired by Nino Rota’s
music for Fellini. He has played and recorded with Sérgio Pelágio, Sílvia Real, João Lucas, João
Afonso, Fernando Mota, Camané, Jon Luz, Clara Andermatt, Filipa Francisco and Amélia
Bentes, among others. He produced the performance “Eu Só Quero Ser Aquilo Que Sou”, a
transdisciplinary project conceived at Nodar. He teaches at Chapitô and is part of a project
that takes music to children in hospitals and prisons.
MAFALDA OLIVEIRA has been technical director at Materiais Diversos since 2008. Lighting
design highlights include “Che Cosa” by Elsa Aleluia and “Purgatório” by Martim Pedroso
(2009); “Matrioska” by Tiago Guedes (2007); “O Beijo no Asfalto” for Baal_17, (2005); “As
Aventuras Extraordinárias do Príncipe e do Castor” for CITAC (2004); “Revolução dos Corpos
Celestes” for Marionet (2001). In collaboration with other artists she has created the
installations and site specific performances including “Espelho Meu” by Catarina Saraiva
(sound design, 2010), “Running Window” by Jorge Santos (lighting design, 2007), “Tsunami”
by Elsa Aleluia (2006), among others. She has worked as technical director for Re.Al
(2008/2006); Escola de Mulheres (2006); Festival Noites na Nora (2006/2005); Baal_17
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(2006/2005); Teatro das Beiras (2004); Teatro da Rainha (2003/2002); Francisco Camacho
(2002).
CONTACTS
Calçada Marquês de Abrantes nº99, 1200-718 Lisboa, Portugal
+351 213 466 295
www.materiaisdiversos.com
Cristina Pereira | Communications
cristina.pereira@materiaisdiversos.com
+351 937 106 771
is a non-profit cultural association led by choreographer Tiago Guedes. Its
work is motivated by the understanding that culture and creativity are vehicles
for development. Materiais Diversos’s mission is to stimulate artistic research
and experimentation and to increase public receptiveness to contemporary
art. It works towards this goal by producing Festival Materiais Diversos and the
projects of its associate artists, promoting their work in national and international circuits. Festival
Materiais Diversos is held annually in the municipality of Alcanena. Its pluridisciplinary programme
includes performances, exhibitions, conferences, debates, workshops, professional meetings and
outdoor activities, encouraging dialogue and reflection about and around contemporary art. With
headquarters in Lisbon, Materiais Diversos is in residence at alkantara.
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