On May 27th, Futurama - Cultural and Artistic Ecosystem of Baixo Alentejo takes its original project, Cantexto, the most representative of the culture of the Alentejo region, to the programme of the Portuguese Embassy in Spain at the 82nd edition of the Madrid Book Fair.
Less than a year since its debut in the Futurama Festival 2022 - which returns for its second edition in June, this year -, the concert that puts in dialogue contemporary literature and the traditional Cante Alentejano travels to the Spanish capital with 114 artists, among 6 choral groups from Serpa, Mértola and Beja and the author Matilde Campilho, in what is the first international activity of Futurama.
A fusion of the words "cante" and "texto" ("text" in Portuguese), Cantexto offers new compositions to the repertoire of Cante Alentejano, a traditional singing genre from the Alentejo region, in southern Portugal, classified as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Based on texts commissioned from contemporary Portuguese writers, later set to music for choral groups by Armando Torrão, Paulo Ribeiro, Os Cantadores do Desassossego and Matilde Campilho, the themes commonly explored in Cante's oral poetry - rural life, love, religion - are revisited and updated through contemporary concerns and contexts - memory, migrations, the future, nature.
On Saturday, in Madrid, the Cantexto will be presented in two emblematic spaces in the city: at Parque de El Retiro, at 5:30 pm, there will be a parade with the participating choral groups; at Casa de América, at 7 pm and with free admission, the literary creations of Gonçalo M. Tavares, Valério Romão, Patrícia Portela, Hélia Correia, José Luís Peixoto, and Matilde Campilho, will be heard through the voices of the Grupo Coral e Etnográfico Sénior da Academia de Serpa, Os Cantadores do Desassossego, Grupo Coral Moços da Aldeia, Grupo Coral Guadiana de Mértola, Grupo Coral Os Caldeireiros de São João and Grupo Coral e Etnográfico da Casa do Povo de Serpa, respectively. Writer Matilde Campilho, professor António Saez Delgado, and journalist Lara López will also join the stage for a conversation about the arts of the word and the relations between the past and the present, tradition and the new.
Under the artistic direction of stage director, curator and cultural programmer John Romão, Futurama is increasingly establishing itself as a fundamental agent for stimulating creativity in, from, and about the Baixo Alentejo - which is becoming, at the same time, a convergence point for prestigious artists from all over the world and a point for the international dissemination of local practices and identities. Its presence at the historic Madrid Book Fair is, therefore, a testimony that what happens in the Baixo Alentejo does not stay only in the Baixo Alentejo.
Futurama - Cultural and Artistic Ecosystem of Baixo Alentejo is funded by the Directorate General for the Arts / Ministry of Culture of the Portuguese Republic, with the strategic support of the Millennium BCP Foundation and the high patronage of the Presidency of the Republic. For the presentation in Madrid, it also has the support of the Municipality of Serpa, the Municipality of Mértola, the Portuguese Embassy in Madrid and the support for internationalisation of the Directorate General for the Arts / Ministry of Culture.
