Volts
Volts – International Performing Arts Gathering, promoted by Central Elétrica in Porto, has established itself as an essential platform for the promotion of contemporary artistic creation, with a particular focus on performative practices that challenge established aesthetic, political, and social norms.
More than just a festival, Volts is a meeting point for artists, curators, thinkers, and audiences who share a desire to expand the boundaries of what is possible in the arts. The festival’s programming prioritizes proposals that engage with urgent issues, welcoming experimental, interdisciplinary, and politically engaged practices. In recent years, Volts has significantly contributed to diversifying the Portuguese artistic ecosystem by creating real conditions for the circulation of discourses and aesthetics. It is also a space for strategic articulation, where emerging and established artists find opportunities to develop their work, build networks, and foster transnational collaborations.
Held in the symbolic setting of Central Elétrica — a space that carries the industrial and working-class memory of the city of Porto — the festival channels the energy of the past to envision more just, plural, and sensitive futures. Volts not only highlights contemporary artistic production — it proposes new ways of relating to the world, to others, and to the very idea of art.
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