Artistic Intervention Projects and Cultural Memory: Experiences from Portugal's Centre Region

Abstract

In July and August 2013, O Teatrão, a Coimbra-based theatre company, presented the project Arruin-ados, comprising three theatre performances in three abandoned spaces (‘ruins’), one in each of three cities in the Centre region of Portugal located along the Mondego River: Coimbra, Montemor-o-Velho, and Figueira da Foz. Developed through a community the atre approach, the artistic presentations were based on the collection of local memories, including local testimonies and other types of local materials from local, social, and economic history. The objectives of the project were to bring un-der reflection how different types of urban and rural ruins, understood as scars and tattoos of a country, may speak about the history of that country and, at the same time, may inspire the possible future transformations and possibilities of change. In parallel with this reflec-tion, the artistic production embodies a strong commit-ment to build collective projects; a sense of a shared, common territory; and a network of people and things to explore and articulate, in a localized, concrete way, the history of Portugal between 1890 and 2020. The paper assesses the role and significance of Arruinados in the context of collective memory, community-based artistic interventions in public space, and the potential for local mobilization through the arts.