RESISTANCE! – Youth Festival of Modern European History was a European performing arts project taking place in Portugal, Italy, France, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and the Netherlands. The project was dedicated to reflecting on the causes and consequences of the authoritarian and totalitarian regimes that have marked modern European history. In Portugal’s case, the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of April 25th were the motto for the creation of the performance, last year.
In Portugal, RESISTANCE! had Faz Cultura – Empresa Municipal de Cultura de Braga, E.M. as an associate partner and was being developed in the context of the preparations for the Portuguese Capital of Culture. RESISTANCE! had the institutional support of the Mário Soares and Maria Barroso Foundation and its partner was the Festival Política, which aims to promote civic participation, the defense of human rights, and the fight against abstention among young people.
Objectives
To foster transnational historical perspectives and new methodologies for teaching history through the performing arts, with the aim of:
– Commemorate important historical turning points and political changes in the 20th century in Europe;
– Stimulate young people’s interest in researching a transnational European history in order to develop a European identity;
– Promote the values of an open democratic society and defend freedom, justice, equality and fundamental human rights.
Description of the 2024 edition
The festival lasted twenty-four months and included a total of eight international activities: one workshop and seven festivals, six locally and one online.
Six cultural institutions were partners in this initiative. Each partner organized a youth theater festival in their country where they hosted and presented the artistic performances of the others and produced their own show in partnership with a local organization, in the Portuguese case Festival Política. In an itinerant format, the performances then went on tour in each of the countries participating in the RESISTANCE! project.
Each performance lasted 30 minutes, followed by a debate with the young audience, in order to encourage reflection on these themes and knowledge about historical events in their own countries, while at the same time discovering similarities and differences with the partner countries.
In Portugal, RESISTANCE! was particularly important, as the 2024 edition coincided with the 50th Anniversary of April 25, a theme that was the motto for the performative creation of the group of young Portuguese.
In Portugal, RESISTANCE! took place in Braga, on May 2, 3 and 4, as part of the 2024 edition of the Festival Política, an annual festival that takes place in different Portuguese cities, organized by the NGO Associação Isonomia, which aims to promote civic participation, the defence of the rights of the people and the rights of the people.
Themes by country
– The Netherlands: The Decolonization Process,
– Czech Republic: The Prague Spring of 1968,
– France: May 68,
– Portugal: The Carnation Revolution of 1974,
– Slovenia: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia,
– Italy: Resistance and Revenge.
Project partners
Gledališče Glej (Slovenia)
NDM Ateliér (Czech Republic)
delleAli Teatro (Italy)
Het Stichting Theaterschip (Netherlands)
Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 University (France)
Associate partner
Faz Cultura – Empresa Municipal de Cultura de Braga, E.M. (Portugal)
Consult here.
Watch here.
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This project has the support from the European Commission, Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
