Successful public reception for cycle “Across Cultures - arts, artists and intellectuals between Portugal and Mozambique”, organized by CICANT's reaserchers Lurdes Macedo, Vanessa Ribeiro-Rodrigues and CITCEM Nuno Bessa Moreira. Next cycle will start in October 2024.
“Across Cultures - arts, artists and intellectuals between Portugal and Mozambique” is a monthly scientific and cultural event that has been gathering specialists around artistic and cultural topics to stimulate dialogue between the two countries through the arts and culture, in partnership with the Bookshop Gato Vadio, in Porto.
The first round ran from October 2023 until May 2024 and has tackled issues related to art as colonial resistance, such as Malangatana’s paintings or Luis Bernardo Honwana’s literature, as well as contemporaneous representations of the colonial past, like the work of artist Manuel Santos Maia.
The project, conceived and carried out by CICANT 's integrated researchers Lurdes Macedo, Vanessa Ribeiro-Rodrigues and CITCEM researcher Nuno Bessa Moreira, consisted of the programming, organization, dissemination and production of eight meetings in which clues were launched to reflect on the invisibility to which the cultural history linking the two countries has been consigned. The silencing of history was questioned based on the tensions between late colonialism and post-colonialism, as well as the apparent discontinuity between these two eras.
The artists and intellectuals who have moved, or are moving, between Portugal and Mozambique, as well as their rich, extensive and original work, are among those most silenced by this history that stubbornly keeps in the shadows an intercultural legacy whose value for Portuguese-speaking culture has yet to be assessed.
At each meeting, a guest speaker delved into a theme based on the results of studies, research or artistic projects, encouraging the participants to reflect upon and discuss the possibilities of the Intercultural History that links the two countries. Therefore, the successful public reception to these discussions gave strength to the relevance of promoting a next round, that will start in October 2024 addressing themes such as Photography and the Archives, Documentary or even Poetry. You’re most welcome to join this initiative. Please remain attentive to the forthcoming cycle.