Braga 25 intensifies its relationship with the public in Galicia, starting today, by inaugurating a photography exhibition in Santiago de Compostela that unveils part of the way in which the cultural project of the city in the North of Portugal has been built over the past few years.
‘Segundo Plano’ brings together images by Lais Pereira, a photographer who has followed this process over the last few years, proposing an alternative reading of the city of Braga that explores a geography of everyday life that runs parallel to the image crystallised by tourist photography. The exhibition will be on show at the Oficina do Turismo Porto e Norte de Portugal, in Rua do Vilar, in the centre of Santiago de Compostela, until 30 April.
The exhibition revisits images from the long process launched by Braga in 2018, when it began to build a cultural strategy for the 2020-2030 decade, which has been implemented. This process also included the city’s bid to become European Capital of Culture 2027, a race in which Braga was a finalist – having lost the final decision to Évora.
Braga’s candidature file for European Capital of Culture attached great importance to relations between the two sides of the Minho, proposing a series of collaborative projects between artists and other cultural agents from Galicia and the north of Portugal. A considerable part of this cross-border liaison effort is being revived in Braga 25 Portuguese Capital of Culture.
Galician Manuel Bouzas, one of the people responsible for representing Spain at the Venice Architecture Biennale, is one of the eight architects taking part in the first edition of the Forma da Vizinhança Architecture and Art Festival.
These creators were challenged to design temporary architectural installations for eight peripheral areas of the city, such as the Parretas or Fontainhas neighbourhoods.These structures will then be activated by artists, in a programme that starts on 31 May and runs throughout the summer.
Braga 25’s expanded cinema programme, Cinex, also pays special attention to Galicia.On 24 May, films by two Galician filmmakers and visual artists, Antía Carreira and Bea Saiáns, will premiere in Braga.
Pupa, a video-essay by Antía Carreira, explores the body of Galician trans and non-binary people, trapped between diagnoses and fixed norms; while Plumass, by Bea Saiáns, reflects on this word which, in Spanish slang, has served as an insult to the homosexual community, especially gay men.