Paredes de Coura hosts ‘Mutant Encounter’ from the 14th to the 16th of this month

Dand according to a statement from Comédias do Minho, promoter of the meeting, the objective is to reflect “on the relationship between culture and art”, at a time aimed at “teachers, mediators, artists, students, cultural programmers, social workers and other people interested in reflecting on the proposed themes”.

The ‘Mutantes Meeting’ represents the culmination of the ‘Mutantes’ project, which Comédias do Minho carried out between 2021 and 2023 in the 10 municipalities of Alto Minho – Arcos de Valdevez, Caminha, Melgaço, Monção, Paredes de Coura, Ponte da Barca, Ponte Lima, Valença, Viana do Castelo and Vila Nova de Cerveira -, to “enhance the social inclusion of teenagers through art and culture”.

Conceived from a “systemic” perspective, according to Comédias do Minho, the project included 80 dance, music and theater workshops, with different durations and formats, conceived and guided by artist-educators.

“The Meeting constitutes a point of arrival and a starting point. It aims to summon internal and external views of the Mutantes Project to reflect on what has been achieved, what remains to be achieved and the horizons that have opened up”, stated Comédias do Minho in communicated.

Over the three days, films will be shown and conversations will take place such as the one that will open the programme, on the theme ‘Listening to wake up’, with the sculptor Pedro Cabrita Reis and the director of the Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar, Sara Antónia Matos , moderated by Carlota Quintão and Magda Henriques.

The night of the first day is dedicated to the screening of the film ‘Contra-bando’ (2010), by Olga Ramos, which transposed to cinema a theater and dance show presented in houses in villages of Minho, bringing together artists, local inhabitants and animals.

A performative exercise and a conversation with teenagers, with the artist Joana Castro, moderated by Manuel Jacinto Sarmento, and a round table on the theme ‘Thinking to qualify’, with representatives of the 10 municipalities of Alto Minho, moderated by the tourism specialist Rafael Vale Machado and by the executive director of the Acesso Cultura association, Maria Vlachou, are on the third day of the meeting.

On the last day, anthropologist Teresa Fradique will summarize the meeting, which will be closed by the artistic director of Comédias do Minho, Magda Henriques, and sociologist Luísa Veloso.

With free entry and registration through the Comédias do Minho website, the theatrical association appeals to the public to participate in this reflection with artists, curators, educators, mediators, politicians, researchers and teenagers participating in the “Mutantes” project.

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