Aveiro is the Portuguese Capital of Culture in 2024. We are the first city to assume this title, with all the responsibility and enthusiasm that this circumstance gives us. We face the challenge as an opportunity to highlight, think and discuss Culture, and, consequently, Life, because the extent of what is understood today as Culture is increasingly vast, democratic and transversal, comprising the most diverse dimensions of our existence.
This is a title that results from the journey undertaken in recent years. A strategy anchored in the Strategic Plan for Culture 2019-2030, a document that defined the Aveiro City Council’s lines of action in this area. Part of this plan was a fundamental step to bring us toIt is here: the candidacy for European Capital of Culture in 2027. It was a process that we undertook with ambition and that placed us among the four finalist cities, after three years of intense work and deep involvement from everyone, generating ideas and many projects.
Just as the European Capital of Culture in 2027 was a step on a broader path, Aveiro Portuguese Capital of Culture 2024 is another stage for the Culture of the Municipality. Nothing is exhausted this year or changes in the fund strategy. It will be a year of special mobilization for Aveiro around contemporary creation and honoring tradition, which we hope will be an opportunity for deep involvement with Culture and capable of generating new possibilities.
The Aveiro City Council takes the lead in this process, which involves the participation of many Citizens, Public and Private Entities, leaving here a special reference to the Intermunicipal Community of the Aveiro Region and its associated Municipalities – and a public thank you to Everyone.
The program we propose is vast and multifaceted. There are many shows, exhibitions, debates, meetings, training actions and other activities. Creativity will be found in the multiple presentations of different Arts, which will live alongside events that already mark the agenda of the Municipality of Aveiro and which take on a greater dimension through the life of the Portuguese Capital of Culture.
Aveiro 2024 with programming dedicated to the 25th of April
I want to take this moment to share with you the special reasons for visiting Aveiro, in this week celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April. The programming for the 2nd quarter of Aveiro Capital Portuguesa da Cultura 2024, dedicated to the theme of Culture & Democracy, presents several initiatives related to the celebration of the 25th of April 1974, namely the unprecedented show by director Patrícia Portela, Mercado das Madrugadas (or instruction manuals for future revolutions). A performancewhich takes place between April 24th and 27th at Praça Dr. Joaquim Melo Freitas, consists of the assembly and disassembly of a market and proposes a place for discussion and imagination for the next 50 years of revolutions.
Also noteworthy is the exhibition The Exercise of Freedoman unprecedented exhibition that brings together a set of works by Portuguese and international artists, from the avant-garde of the 1960s and 1970s to the present, and which belong to the Serralves and Aveiro Municipal Collections.
Still in the months of May and June, Citizens and Visitors will have the opportunity to attend activities dedicated to the theme of April 25th, of which I highlight some – which you can find out in more detail here: Alexandrian Fado (May 9); Made In Aveiro Cantar Zeca Afonso (May 19); the project I wanted to know who I am, from the Dona Maria II National Theater (May 25); the Culture and Democracy Conference (29 May); the cycle of four short films, Experience Music [Estreia] | Year 1st – May 1st | April Carnations | Painted Walls of the Portuguese Revolution (May 18), or the premiere of Zeca Afonso, Singer and Poet – Literary Journey (June 29).
Let’s enjoy everything this special year has to offer us. As the slogan of Aveiro 2024, we have an infinite scenario ahead of us, which we want to live with you, using the good reasons of Life, of meeting or reunion, of artistic celebration and of Portuguese Culture to live a memorable year in the Region, in the Municipality and in the City of Aveiro.
Here is my/our invitation and a hug.
We are waiting for you in Aveiro, the City of Canals.
