Derivas na Ria

André Braga & Cláudia Figueiredo

13 & 14 July, 5:00 pm | Aveiro [PREMIERE]
20 July, 3:00 pm | Festival dos Canais, Aveiro [PREMIERE]
21 July, 4:00 pm | Festival dos Canais, Aveiro [PREMIERE]

The presentations of DERIVAS NA RIA will take place on the 13th and 14th of July, at 5pm, and on the 20th at 3 pm, and 21st, at 4pm. The meeting point is at AVELA – Associação Aveirense de Vela de Recreio, next to the Antiga Lota de Aveiro. Entrance is free, with mandatory reservation via email bilheteira-TA@cm-aveiro.pt.

Em julho, nos fins-de-semana de 13-14 e 20-21, estreamos em Aveiro, no âmbito da Capital Nacional da Cultura, DERIVAS NA RIA, o novo projeto de André Braga e Cláudia Figueiredo, diretores artísticos da Circolando – Central Elétrica, estrutura artística do Porto, ligada à dança, teatro e cruzamentos disciplinares. 

In July, on the weekends of 13-14 and 20-21, we premiered in Aveiro, within the scope of the National Capital of Culture, DERIVAS NA RIA, the new project by André Braga and Cláudia Figueiredo, artistic directors of Circolando – Central Elétrica, artistic structure in Porto, linked to dance, theater and disciplinary intersections.

“Giant river polyp”, the Aveiro lagoon is a precious territory that still remains largely unknown. Full of ancestral memories and ever-renewed challenges, there is something about the Ria that can take us away from the flow of time. Appealing to several artistic languages, and following the format of a show-route between several stations, Derivas proposes an encounter with the landscape and a fiction constructed from the territory, its experiences and stories, more or less documentary, more or less imaginary.

“In these projects, what we like above all is taking the universes and materials that we find in the territory and crossing them with more metaphorical and fictional dimensions, proposing new readings and original associations.”

Walkscapes, intense experiences of immersion in the landscape, fictional anthropology, spirit of places, micro stories of people, things, entities that inhabit them are some of the key ideas with which they set out for the territory.

“Life as a whole is collected in spaces and places that are only accessible to us by experiencing them, living them. In each place, we value its existential dimension, the multiplicity of layers, the plurality of durations. We cross-referenced speeches, readings, memories, sensations, and ended up proposing him a brief fiction”

The extensive area of ​​Salgado de Aveiro – which had 270 navies, now only 6 in activity – constituted the central nucleus of his research map, followed later by the definition of a route that involves long walks, boat trips, performances, facilities and a cine-concert. The project involves the participation of groups from the local community, namely a formation from the Quinta do Picado Band and a group of young students from the Sandra Leite School of Dance and reflects the work in co-creation of a multidisciplinary artistic team: Gonçalo Mota, in the video, João Sarnadas, in the musical composition, Ana Amaral, Daniela Cruz and Gil Mac, in the performing stations.

Fishing and fish farms, salt marshes, moliço, the activities of the Port of Aveiro, traditional boat building yards, scientific research… we sought to take a look at the contemporary nature of the Ria, its memory and possibilities of the future.

“In the lagoon, there has long been tension over development priorities, options for different ways of life, and, as almost always, there is a lot of debate that remains to be had. We believe in the very special power of the experience and we believe it is urgent to highlight a unique territory that remains largely unknown, including to the majority of Aveirenses“.