CREATIVE LISBON: 5 EVENTS THIS APRIL
As a monumental month for Portuguese history and identity, April is a month overflowing with creative and intellectual events, prompting a moment of important cultural conversation. It is during these abundant cultural occasions that we can appreciate the true power of art to bring to the table dialogues around national, international, and personal histories and identities. Beyond the 25 de Abril celebrations, April in Lisbon also offers up new creative exhibitions, festivals and workshops that will challenge you creatively and intellectually.
1. 25 de Abril - 50th Anniversary Celebrations
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 25 de Abril revolution, Comissão Comemorativa 50 Anos 25 de Abril has curated a thought-provoking, vast and diverse selection of events provoking discussions and reflections around freedom and democracy through talks, art, theatre and more. Reflecting on Portugal’s modern history as well as our present moment, the celebrations intend to be ‘participatory, plural and democratic’ - an opportunity for freedom of thought, discussions and creative initiatives around decolonisation and democracy.
The 50th anniversary of the 25th of April must be a moment of testimony, from those who fought against the dictatorship and built Democracy to those who were born in Freedom. They must be the catalyst for a collective consciousness of citizenship – the basis for building the next 50 years of Democracy, keeping in mind that none of April's achievements can be taken for granted.
In 1974, upon overthrowing a dictatorship that had been in force for almost half a century in Portugal, the Captains presented a Program whose axes were Decolonization, Democratization and Development. This gesture had an impact that transcended national borders. After more than a decade of fighting on the African fronts, the military began a process that would lead to the granting of independence to the former colonial peoples and begin the democratization of Portugal.
To celebrate April and its achievements, 2024 will be a year of sharing, debate and celebration, at home and abroad – through the initiatives developed by the 50th Anniversary 25th of April Commemorative Commission, in its own name or in cooperation with others, and through those with whom, in some way, we have associated ourselves. This is a Celebration for all who want to join.
Explore Echo’s curated list of 25th of April events here.
2. Evidence: Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith @ CCB
Exploring shared artistic dialogue, soundscapes and metaphysical journeys, this latest exhibition at the Cultural Centre de Belem explores the poetics, music and vision of Stephan Crasneanscki and Patti Smith’s Perfect Vision. Using sound, film, imagery, objects, and art, the exhibition is a multidisciplinary journey into the boundaryless creative process.
Between 2017 and 2021, Stephan Crasneanscki and Patti Smith collaborated on the creation of Perfect Vision, a triptych of albums which take their inspiration from the writings of three emblematic French poets: Antonin Artaud, Arthur Rimbaud and René Daumal. Central to the work was the poets’ necessity to travel to different lands to acquire a new vision and perspective on themselves and their art. Recorded in the Sierra Tarahumara of Mexico, the Abyssinian valley of Ethiopia, and the Himalayan Summit of India respectively, each record’s core idea is that every landscape holds sleeping memories that are the witness of human passage.
Produced with Soundwalk Collective’s Russell Elevado, Leonardo Heiblum, Nicolas Becker, and Simone Merli, each album retraces the poets’ footsteps, guiding us through soundscapes and musicalities revisited by Patti Smith’s enchanting voice. Stimulated by these metaphysical journeys, the musical and sound composition of Perfect Vision is the starting point for this site-specific, multidisciplinary exhibition originally created by Soundwalk Collective and Patti Smith at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and redesigned for the MAC/CCB in Lisbon.
A poetic and immersive quest, Evidence is an ode to a borderless world. The physical, sound, and visual journeys of Soundwalk Collective enter into an infinite conversation with the poetic trajectories of Patti Smith to create a new vision and language. The exhibition space presents sound, film, abstract imagery, objects, and found art collected from their travels, leading the visitor into a large investigative installation that juxtaposes photography, text, and original artworks by Patti Smith.
Curated by / Commissaires: Chloé Siganos and / et Jean-Max Colard. Exhibition organised by MAC/CCB in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou.
3. Lisbon Art & Antiques Fair @ Cordoaria Nacional
From the 12th to the 21st of April the LAAF, the Lisbon Art & Antiques Fair returns once more, in addition to “Conversas Sobre Arte”, with talks such as ‘The Importance of Museums in the City of Lisbon’ and ‘Imagination and Commerce’ delving deeper into art in society.
4. Weekly Life Drawing @ Echo Studios
Join us for our newly launched weekly life drawing sessions in our studio space; a chance to improve and explore your drawing skills amongst a welcoming community.
5. Italian Film Festival 2024 @ various venues
For another staggering line-up of curated films, explore the Italian Film Festival 2024, dedicated to the promotion and celebration of Italian culture across decades and formats. In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April 1974, the Festa do Cinema Italiano has additionally collaborated with the Cinemateca Portuguesa - Museu do Cinema, creating the retrospective, The Other 25th of April / L'altro 25 Aprile, in memory of the Feast of Liberation in Italy, or April 25th, 1945 - the end of Mussolini's fascist dictatorship and the Nazi occupation alike. Thus is a shared dialogue of freedom, resistance and democracy promoted and explored via the cinematic programme on this most significant of dates for both countries.
The Italian Cinema Festival is the most important event in Portugal dedicated to Italian culture, promoting, in addition to cinema, music, literature, art and gastronomic events.In Lisbon, the festival takes place from April 12th to 21st, at Cinema São Jorge, at UCI El Corte Inglés, at Cinemateca Portuguesa - Museu do Cinema and, for the first time, at the recently reopened Cine-Teatro Turim, in Benfica.
The Italian Cinema Festival is organized by the Il Sorpasso Association, with the support of Lisbon City Council, the Italian Embassy, the Italian Institute of Culture of Lisbon and Cinecittà.
