Evora, Portugal, Sept. 19, 2025 (Lusa) - The Evora 2027 Association has held the first contract signing ceremony for 13 projects included in the Portuguese Alentejo region city's application to become European Capital of Culture, worth €2.7 million.
In a statement, which does not provide details on the various projects, the association states that "the signing of these first contracts represents an important milestone, marking the transition from the planning phase to the implementation phase of Évora_27".
On Thursday, contracts were signed with the João Cutileiro Art Centre (whose project, which will be in production in 2025, includes residencies for six European artists, an exhibition and a cultural guide), with the Quetzal Art Centre (which, through curator Filipa Oliveira, will "challenge artists who are also environmental activists, at an international level, to stimulate dialogue between the Alentejo region and European geology") and with the University of Évora (for the ’Lá nas Árvores‘ project, which consists of an "open call" for musicians from Mediterranean countries who want to give concerts for a different audience: trees).
A contract was also signed with the university for the Guadiana Afro-Ibero-American literature biennial, which will be curated in 2027 by Antonio Saez Delgado and Gabriela Harac, according to the application dossier, which budgeted €400,000 for two editions.
A contract was signed with the association É Neste País for the project ‘Parasites and Fungi: Fables for a New Era’, which aims to invite "European storytellers to create and present new fables - some for children, others not so much - inspired by the relationship between parasites, fungi, nature, animals and humans", also according to the application dossier.
According to the bid book, Alma d'Arame will invite "five puppet theatre companies from different parts of the world to work solo with elderly people from the Alentejo region, creating puppets for each person, inspired by their personal stories (whether real or fictional)", in a project entitled ‘Solitude’.
A contract was signed with Praça Filmes for the project ‘Estórias em Movimento’ (Stories in Motion). In the application dossier, Praça Filmes' project was entitled ‘Liberdade para Repensar o Mundo’ (Freedom to Rethink the World) and envisaged the production of "animated short films that will inspire humanity to act, to change", involving names such as Mia Couto, Regina Pessoa, José Eduardo Agualusa, Pedro Serrazina, Virgílio Ferreira, Alê Abreu and João Gonzalez.
Efémera Coleção signed a contract for the project ‘Collecting to Rehearse the World’, which "will bring together collectors and collections from Portugal and beyond to demonstrate, through the obsessive act of collecting, how time is essential to building a new order for humanity".
Musician António Bexiga will develop ‘Voz Comum’ (Common Voice), within the scope of the traditional Alentejo region choral chants, while the Lisbon Architecture Triennale will develop the cultural programme ‘Sob o Céu da Malagueira’ (Under the Malagueira Sky), in relation to the neighbourhood designed by Álvaro Siza, curated by Nuno Grande.
The Casa Branca Cooperative Station will work on ‘Travão de Emergência’ (Emergency Brake), which aims to implement "a set of transdisciplinary activities designed to restore biodiversity and imagine creative, nature-based solutions to produce more welcoming and stimulating landscapes and to revive empty and neglected areas."
A contract was signed with the Convent Workshops for the ‘Terracronia’ project, while Cortéx Frontal will work on an initiative called ‘Hypertextile’.
According to the information available in the application dossier, the combined budgets of the projects planned by these structures totalled more than €3.7 million, and several of them are already in production this year.
TDI/AYLS // AYLS
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