5th edition of BoCA starts today in Lisbon and Madrid

The BoCA - Contemporary Arts Biennial program takes place under the theme 'Camino Irreal', still curated by cultural programmer John Romão - who in April was chosen as artistic director of Évora European Capital of Culture (CEC) 2027 -, and this year aims to strengthen artistic relations between the two Iberian capitals, involving 30 cultural institutions from both countries in the project.

The 'oven-sculpture' 'Alcindo Monteiro', by Gabriel Chaile, pays tribute from today in Madrid to the young Portuguese man of Cape Verdean origin murdered in 1995, in Lisbon, in a racial hate crime that remains a reference in the fight against racism in Portugal.

Created in clay and with anthropomorphic features, the piece is part of Chaile's research into collective memory and community rituals, articulating ancestral knowledge and artisanal practices with the present, having been presented for the first time in Lisbon at the previous edition of the biennial, in 2023.

The installation will be presented in Madrid over three afternoons, in partnership with La Casa Encendida, at Esto es Una Plaza, in the Lavapiés neighborhood, and will be accompanied by a public program with musical and performative actions, expanding the dialogue between artistic practices, territory and local communities.

Until October 26, BoCA aims to establish a new Iberian axis of artistic creation and presentation, bringing together transdisciplinary projects that cross the performing and visual arts, music and cinema.

One of the highlights of this edition is the "absolute premiere" of the opera 'Adilson', staged by Dino D'Santiago, with a libretto by Rui Catalão, about the struggle of thousands of people for citizenship and the right to be recognized in the country where they live.

'Coral dos Corpos sem Norte', a show by Angolan artist Kiluanji Kia Henda, in partnership with the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II (TNDM), premieres on the 20th, at Sala Estúdio Valentim de Barros, in Jardins da Bombarda, in Lisbon, where it will return the following day.

The work reflects on migrations as a "pemba process", a ritual for a path "without beginning or end".

In this movement of migrants northward, the book's introduction states, "instead of paradise," what we find is "an atrocious reality," with the Mediterranean transformed into a "graveyard of bodies without direction." A reflection on Europe, colonialism, and post-independence Africa.

Among the program's highlights are also a new installation by visual artist Adriana Progranó, which occupies the public space, the performance 'De espiral em espiral', "which intersects colonial history and practices of family divination", by Guatemalan multimedia artist Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, and the performative vigil 'The Trial of Pelicot', by Swiss director Milo Rau, with actress Servane Dècle, presented in July at the Festival d'Avignon, "constructed from the real case of sexual violence that shocked France and the world, where justice is questioned in the space of art".

Directors João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata will present the new film '13 Alfinetes', "which articulates devotion and desire in dialogue with the visual memory of Lisbon and Madrid", and choreographer Tânia Carvalho and singer and performer Rocío Guzmán will present a concert that combines "traditional Portuguese songbook and flamenco to reflect on shared heritages".

Other highlights of the program include the project 'A fiction in the fold of the map', by choreographers and dancers Elena Córdoba and Francisco Camacho, which revisits the first meeting between the two, and the creation 'Os Rapazes da Praia de Adoro', which "starts from the queer imagination and male intimacy, to think about the relationship between Portugal and Spain", by Spanish playwright and director Alberto Cortés and Portuguese painter João Gabriel.

The 5th edition of BoCA will take place in Lisbon and Madrid, such as the Belém Cultural Center, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Culturgest, the Bairro Alto Theater, the Estufa Fria, the Carpintarias de São Lázaro and the Cinemateca Portuguesa, the Prado Museum, the Reina Sofia Museum, the Theatro de La Abadia, the National Costume Museum and the Spanish Film Library.

Speaking to the Lusa news agency, curator John Romão said that this work has a very strong intention to "strengthen and expand" relations between artists and Iberian cultural institutions.

"We are truly restructuring, strengthening, and expanding these Iberian relations [...] that have rarely been worked on in such a representative way. We are recognizing the uncertainty in a world of constant noise [...]. It is important to reimagine a more balanced future. Artistic creation is always an unrealistic path of refuge and resistance," said John Romão.

The BoCA curator guaranteed that the participation of 20 Portuguese and ten Spanish cultural entities "is the largest number involved in a cultural project between Portugal and Spain to date."

Also scheduled for this edition are the exhibition 'Dialeto', by Felipe Romero Beltrán, at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Chiado and at Carpintarias de São Lázaro, and the concert-performance 'The Spirit Lamp', by Chrystabell, at A Voz do Operário, with music by David Lynch.

In '¿De qué casa eres?', visual artist Ana Pérez-Quiroga created her first film, to be shown at Cinema Fernando Lopes, and, with it, a performance related to the moving image.

The cycle 'I want to see my mountains', in turn, revisits the legacy of Joseph Beuys based on his own real and symbolic mountains.

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