Pick Manifesto 25 de Abril hoje

This book aims to embody the exercise of freedom of thought and creation that we sought to instigate throughout the workshops dedicated to reflecting on April 25, organized by the Performance Art & Performativity in Art Cluster (ICNOVA-NOVA FCSH and IHA-NOVA FCSH/ IN2PAST). Each workshop was coordinated jointly with one or more members of the cluster, respecting horizontality and individuality, in order to stimulate the diversity that characterizes us. The book reflects precisely that. In the Prologue, we emphasize this heterogeneity through the photographic record of the workshops and what we built together there. The following chapters, which are titled after the pillars of democracy we discussed, were assigned to members of the cluster who coordinated and/or participated in the respective workshops. The authors chose how they wanted to approach the topic, using different languages. In the cases of the chapters on Peace, Education, and Bread—the latter of which was developed as a visual reading—a more poetic approach was taken. In the case of Culture, the text is based on an excerpt from an interview with a guest speaker at the workshops dedicated to the theme. The chapters on Housing and Health use scientific language, as does the Epilogue, which is dedicated to questioning creative academic methodologies based on affectivity, to which several members of the cluster contributed.

The chapter Q.B.: Collective Performance is based on the artistic work of Helena Elias, a member of the cluster, who generously adapted her performance to the context of Pick Manifesto 25 de Abril hoje. We closed the cycle of workshops with this “performance-dinner-party” on July 27, 2024, on the experimental stage of Partícula no Açúcar, in Lisbon. The chapter contains the text presenting the performance, written by Helena Elias, and a selection of photographs representing some of the moments experienced there.

April 25th is not over yet. That is why we continue to build it. We have chosen to do so by experimenting with new spaces of freedom in the production of knowledge. Sérgio Godinho himself speaks of the importance of doing so in the text we publish here, which concludes the book, stating that the expression of freedom remains an urgent issue today.