Festivals and cultural exhibitions not yet enabled

By Vanessa Ricardo, for Jornal A Cena

The artistic class of Paraná continues to go through difficult times, as if the pandemic that stopped artistic production across the country for more than two years was not enough. Making art in Paraná is increasingly difficult. This could be due to the delay in notices such as the State Cultural Promotion and Incentive Program (Profice), or the judicialization of notices that block the transfer of funds to projects already approved.

This second situation is the case of events such as the 3rd edition of the Claudete Pereira Jorge Exhibition, which was scheduled to take place in two months, in addition to events such as the 1st Theater Festival of São José dos Pinhais, Grupo Dia de Arte, de Ponta Grossa and TELÚRICA – Festival Made by Palhaças – 3rd Edition, as a result of the Paraná Festivals Notice, of the Paulo Gustavo Law.

There are, in total, 24 festivals and cultural exhibitions, which were eligible in the notice, as a result of an emergency law. After being approved and with documentation sent, the projects were surprised: on January 19, 2024, Parnaxx, producer of the largest performing arts event in Paraná, filed a request for a writ of mandamus, questioning the note received by its project in the aforementioned notice. Parnaxx, which has been organizing the Curitiba Festival for 32 years, received a score of 73.5, placing 77th in the general classification, well behind the 24 projects contemplated and qualified.

“It’s very sad, especially because the writ of mandamus was not requested by a small or medium-sized production company, like ours”, says Igor Augustho, production coordinator at Pomeiro Gestão Cultural, responsible for Mostra Claudete. “It is a producer that will certainly have the next edition of its event – even if reduced – guaranteed, as it has the money for it and raises it through other sources, while we have very little chance of financing our proposals”.

Another point to highlight is that the notice provides for a budget of R$4,779,292.96, which came through the Paulo Gustavo Law, an emergency law aimed at culture, aimed at individual microentrepreneurs, micro and small companies and institutions that had their activities interrupted because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Here it is worth highlighting that during 2019 to 2024, Parnaxx – and other companies that represent their events under the Federal Culture Incentive Law, the “Rouanet Law” – raised a total of R$14,289,630.40. The value is much higher than the total for the Paraná Festivals notice, which will be divided among those approved. Each of the approved projects will not even receive more than 315 thousand to hold their events.

According to publicly available data on the VERSALIC platform (which ensures access to information about projects financed with resources from the Federal Culture Incentive Law) prove that the Festival de Curitiba and Fringe projects have raised, at least since 2019, R$14,289,630.40, being : Curitiba Festival – 32nd edition – PRONAC 234537 raised R$3,105,947.75; Fringe 2024 – Pronac 236355 raised R$3,946,962.75; Fringe 2023 – Pronac 222525 raised R$1,787,000.00 and Fringe Pronac 193433 raised R$5,449,720.41.

​The total raised is equivalent, in just five years, to almost three times the total amount made available by the Paraná Festivals notice, for all the projects included. Considering that there were no in-person editions of the Curitiba Festival in 2020 and 2021, it can be estimated that each edition of the event held between 2019 and 2024 raised an average of R$3,572,407.60 (except, also, amounts raised by the Festival’s other activities, such as Gastronomix and Guritiba, which have also been raised in the last five years, in specific projects). It is also worth noting that, of the four projects listed above, only the first was proposed to the Federal Culture Incentive Law by Parnaxx, while the second and third were proposed by the company Ápice-associação para o Incentivo da Cultura e Entertainment and the fourth by Araucária Produções Artísticas.

In contact with Parnaxx’s press office, Jornal A Cena was exclusively informed that the writ of mandamus was opened for the same reason as Audiovisual notice 002. There is, however, one difference: the aforementioned notice was not prosecuted, as was done by Parnaxx. In that specific situation, there were projects that were harmed, as some of them were without the five total scores from the reviewers, in some cases with the same opinions for different projects. No competing producer, however, stopped the notice due to dissatisfaction with the grades awarded. In contact with Parnaxx, it was informed that the company would comment through a note released to the press, but at the time of writing this article we had not received such a note.

Cultural producer and actress Aline Gonçalves, who had the project for the 1st São José dos Pinhais Theater Festival approved, is also at risk of delaying her project. “I saw in the Paraná Festivals notice a possibility of holding the event, which despite the age of the city, and having an already established cultural movement, has never had a festival focused on the performing arts. And the idea of ​​the event is to bring together and value the work of local companies, in addition to bringing companies from other cities. As it will be the first time that the festival will take place, we depend 100% on the money provided for in the notice”, Aline also recalled, that in addition to helping to strengthen the city’s artistic class, holding the festival will have a positive impact on the municipality, generating employment and income, benefiting the region’s creative economy.

On Monday, April 22, Judge Luiz Taro Oyama revoked the writ of mandamus, according to the appeal, “detailed information was missing, it seems to have been the bane of the petitioner’s project which, in this way, did not receive the maximum score , as espoused by the judges, on the occasion of the award of the score, as well as the delivery of decisions rejecting the administrative insurgency”.

The Grupo Dia de Arte, from Ponta Grossa, celebrates 10 years of existence in 2024 and would hold a repertoire exhibition in June, aimed at children and teenagers from the city’s public education network. For David Dias, the group’s creator and project proponent, learning about the injunction was very frustrating. “We had already scheduled the theater dates for the festival. Unfortunately we will have to reschedule, as there is no more time to do it. In addition to all the work and planning we had done, many people who were involved were affected, as they were already working on designing the set and costumes. It didn’t just harm our group, but a whole chain of cultural producers”, said David.

In contact with the State Secretariat for Culture, the reporter was informed that the batch 02 process is ready for payment, and that the certificates are being updated to transfer the funds. They also informed that on the afternoon of the 25th, they would define whether the Popular Festivals project that should have been selected in notice 003 would enter this batch.

Editing: Mayala Fernandes