Concerts, performances, parties, exhibitions, poetry and cinema. The Verão Azul Festival is back in Lagos, between the 6th and 9th of April, and in Loulé, between the 13th and 16th of April, and this year presents dozens of proposals based on sound and its relationship with the body and space.
After 10 editions, this year the Festival «marks a new cycle», focused on just two cities in the Algarve, thus focusing the program.
«We thought that this year it would be interesting to have a much more focused vision of what sound is and how sound can be a unifying element between the performing arts, visual arts and cinema», he explains to Sul Informação Daniel Matos, performer, choreographer, visual artist and co-curator of the 11th edition of Verão Azul, whose program was designed by Ana Borralho and João Galante.
In all, from the 6th to the 16th of April, there are presentations in both cities, with four concerts, five performances, four nights of clubbing, four cinema sessions, an exhibition, a moment of dance, a slam of poetry, two conversations and even the launch of a publication.
«Initially, what was tried was to find artists who worked not only in a specific area, but who were multidisciplinary. Not just concerts, but people who come from the performing arts, but who have sound as the basis of their artistic practices», explains the co-curator, giving the example of the concert by Tânia Carvalho.
The artist will present Madmud – on the 8th of April, at 22 pm, at the Centro Cultural de Lagos, and on the 30th, at 16 pm, at the Cineteatro Louletano -, a show that aims to make the public delve into the musical and poetic sphere.
According to the co-curator, within the visual arts, «there has also been a lot of focus on new realities», looking for artists before finding a «base of coexistence».
João Felgueira (Joninator) arrives at the Summer BLUE a drive “Screen-Inator”, an audience interaction performance in which the role of the screen as an omnipresent object is explored, occupying physical space as an extension of the human body.
The collective exhibition “NO, FUTURE, NO CRY”, curated by Ana Borralho, João Galante and Daniel Matos, is the space where five artists who develop work between sculpture and digital work converge.
They are David O'Reilly, Weisstub, Rui Palma, Fernando Ribeiro and Static Drama.
These are just some of the points on the program that, in some cases, are repeated in Lagos and Loulé.
«We have a community that doesn't move that much between cities, and, to try to give greater access to the Algarve, we have works and artists that are repeated, but there are others specific to each location», explains Daniel Matos.
On the way to the 11th edition, the co-curator says that the festival has made its way, giving the territory contemporary artistic proposals and already has a steady audience.
«The idea was always to be able to concentrate on the offer, not only what people want to see, but what we feel is a need in the territory», he continues.
Regarding tickets, this year there is a general pass in Lagos that costs 25 euros and gives access to all activities. The price of individual tickets, in both cities, cost between 5 and 10 euros.
O Summer BLUE takes place from April 6th to 9th, in Lagos, at the Centro Cultural de Lagos, Clube Artístico Lacobrigense, LAC – Creative Activities Laboratory and Espaço Jovem / Escola de Dança de Lagos.
From the 13th to the 16th of April, in Loulé, the Festival Cosa Sarà will be at Cineteatro Louletano, Bafo de Baco, Alfaia, 8100 Café and space SUL, SOL, SAL.
Produced by the casaBranca cultural association, the Summer BLUE it is financed by DGArtes, with co-production by the Municipality of Lagos and Cineteatro Louletano – Municipality of Loulé. Teatro do Bairro Alto EGEAC CML supports the presentation of Sh!t Theatre.
The complete program can be consulted here
The 1st edition of the Verão Azul Festival took place in 2011, for 4 days, in Lagos, with an essentially national programme. Always under the artistic direction of Ana Boralho and João Galante, since then, the international festival it also extended to the Sotavento Algarve.
Asserting itself as an event with unique characteristics in the region, it has presented theater, dance, performance, music, cinema and visual arts projects, combining works by national and foreign artists.
In 2018, it opened a new cycle and started to international festival biennial. In his intervening years, he dedicates himself to working, together with guest artists, on his artistic intention of decentralizing and deepening relationships with contexts, communities and the local artistic fabric, promoting creative residencies, research laboratories and co-productions , whose results will be presented in each edition of the international festival.
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