Leiria: the Door and the Plastic House

Leiria takes the out-of-the-box culture bridles between June 16 and 24 with A Porta Festival (The Door Festival)

 

 

The Porta (door) Festival proposes a true multidisciplinary experience in the city Leiria, which involves all the community: intergenerational and inclusive, the Porta Festival will activate various spaces and charismatic places of the city. This Festival will reveal the best of Leiria, proposing several cultural itineraries with local, national and international artists, strengthening the inclusion of diverse communities and experiences, in a truly multidisciplinary platform.

From the 16^th to the 24^th of June, Leiria hosts music, exhibitions, thematic dinners, street art and children's activities. Of these so many actions Lisbonne-Idée highlights the Casa Plástica, The Plastic House. This is the grand collective exhibition of visual arts, part of the The Door Festival. From 16 to 24 June, the exhibition "This house has already given light" (Portuguese expression to ‘giving birth’, a pun for the word light) occupies a new space, the Old Building of EDP, the Portuguese Electricity Company, next to the Vala Real Garden. 

 

Photos that lead to noisy concert stages, wax sculptures with hidden wicks, light scenes or memories of a space that once was the office of an electric distribution centre. The works assembled in " This house has already given light " are essays to approach light as a starting point and arrival. 

 

 

Francisca Veiga

 

The exhibition includes works by dozens of visual artists such as Francisca Veiga, Luísa Passos, curatorial collaboration of Electricidade Estética, as well as a wide program of performances by artists like Tiago Gandra or Diana Pinto, as well as an educational service directed to schools and general public, with guided tours and workshops.

 

 

À esquerda Micael Ferreira e à direita Carolina Serrano

 

The A Porta Festival has selected four workshops, with the aim of introducing the ‘to do’ in the ‘to see’ space. The Festival will also be a place for learning and creation, with direct intervention workshops on 16mm film by António Caramelo; Mimeograph by Pedro Petiz and Collectivo Sol; Luz Líquida - Experimental Photography Workshop - Quimigramas by Imagerie – Casa das Imagens, and Light and Shadow on Chinese Ink, by Luísa Passos.

 

 

Inês Domingues

 

A festival like this must have a musical poster carefully chosen, “au theme”: Dead Combo, Bonga, Conan Osiris, The Parkinsons, Memória de Peixe,Filho da Mãe, Marco Franco, Emperor X, Nice Weather for Ducks, FUGLY and First Breath After Coma. Also starring some special guests, Mohama Saz, Miami Flu, Ricardo Martins, G Combo, Jibóia, Cosmic Mass, Debut, After 3000 and KOYAANISQATSI, all putting together the musical poster, plus several micro-concerts featuring young local musicians. This choice well reflects the comprehensive, intergenerational and multifaceted character that A Porta Festival of Leiria intends to be.

 

And then there is Portinha, The Little Door: in 2018, The Porta Festival is consolidated as a fiesta for all ages, from the cradle to grannies, for everyone, regardless of their physical, economic or social condition. Portinha is a program of 28 activities for children and youth, which take place on 16, 17, 23 and 24 June, in various areas of Leiria.

 

 

Jubilee Street

 

Workshops and folk dances, animation film workshops, masks and books, yoga, urban dances, sensory journeys, colourful bakery, recycling and weaving. The programmatic diversity is wide and bets on the encounter, on the creative relationships and promotes new ideas and experiences. A special spotlight on the Song Illustration workshop, with acclaimed visual artist Mariana a Miserável, or for the multi-award-winning PLAY Day, an afternoon of imagining and creating toys and games. Also worthy of mention is the Brincar na Rua, Play Outside project, a social innovation program that is creating the conditions for children to play safely back on the streets.

 

The Thematic Dinners at the A Porta Festival have already become a hallmark of the event. There are 4 dinners with worldly flavours and music as a dessert, during which the guests gather in private houses and go on a blind date, making new friends, getting to know new music and getting closer to the generosity and diversity of the various worlds and communities who live in the city. 

 

On June 18 and 19, the Porta invites for 4 dinners with limited seating in 4 different houses. At the French and Nepalese dinners on the 18th we’ll have Carollyne and Churky as musical desserts, respectively; and the Mexican and Japanese dinners on the 19th, will be served along the music of 001 and Coringas. 

Don’t start to party, we have less good news: all the Thematic Dinners are already sold out. No problem, next year there is more and I promise that I will bring these news in time to my reader be able to taste the world-kitchen at Festival A Porta.

 

More info here. 

Images and film provided by the organization.