“GNration should be a source of pride for all people from Braga”, argues Luís Fernandes, the artistic director, highlighting that GNration, which celebrated its 11th anniversary yesterday, has already established itself as “an important structure in the national cultural ecosystem”.
It was with open doors to the community that gnration celebrated another anniversary. In addition to lots of music with national and international artists, with whom the party continued until the early hours of the morning, there were also, during the day, workshops and guided tours of the exhibitions, all with free entry.
Holding this ‘open day’ is already a tradition at gnration, as highlighted by the artistic director of gnration and Theatro Circo, saying that this day is an opportunity to show that what is done there “can be easily enjoyed by anyone” . And what is done there is, above all, to provide a stage and work on more modern artistic areas that broaden horizons.
Speaking to journalists, Luís Fernandes highlighted that over the years gnration has “remained faithful to its genesis”, working on “disciplinary areas that are less common and that have become more common over these 11 years”. These areas also “sedimented gnration as an important structure in the Portuguese cultural ecosystem”.
“GNration, despite the specificity of its mission, reached the top 8 of the Portuguese Theaters and Cinemas Network. Therefore, it is a structure financed by DGArtes and is one of the eight main national structures – even ahead of Theatro Circo, which is curious, but from an artistic point of view it was marked in this way three years ago”, said Luís Fernandes, adding that the gnration is also an integral part of the Portuguese Contemporary Art Network, a network also under the umbrella of DGArtes.
“DGArtes also developed a competition for national structures to be financed through this Contemporary Art Network and gnration was the best scorer at the intermediate level of funding. And he won yet another project. This really demonstrates the strength of gnration and the seriousness of what it does here”, highlighted the artistic director, remembering that “we are talking about a project that is not for the masses. It’s a project to train audiences, to broaden horizons.”
It is precisely because of the place it has achieved in the national cultural ecosystem that Luís Fernandes considers that this equipment “should be a source of pride for all people from Braga”.
The artistic director admits, however, that the people of Braga still don’t know the gnration as much as they would like, but this is work that is being done and initiatives such as the ‘open day’ also aim to captivate more audiences and publicize what they do in that cultural facility. .
“What we set out to do, we do it seriously and trying to be the best possible at it”, he guaranteed.
Half of the tickets purchased with the Quadrilátero Card
Luís Fernandes said yesterday that the Quadrilátero Card “was a successful bet in promoting people’s access to culture”.
“Around half of the people who buy tickets for the GNration and Theatro Circo do so with the Quadrilátero Card”, said Luís Fernandes, remembering that with this card, which has an annual cost of 25 euros, it is possible to buy tickets for everyone shows (costing more than five euros) with a 50% discount.
Luís Fernandes: “It is important to enhance the Cultural Quadrangle”
The artistic director of gnration and Theatro Circo — structures supervised by the municipal company Teatro Circo, which is in the transition phase of the name ‘Faz Cultura – Empresa Municipal de Cultura de Braga, EM’ — considers that it is “very important that institutions communicate and try to enhance this network of four cities” that make up the Cultural Quadrangle: Braga, Guimarães, Famalicão and Barcelos. “This region is clearly on an upward trajectory and contradicting the idea that in Lisbon and Porto there is much more cultural offer than in the rest of the country”, he said.
