The Municipality of Oliveira de Frades, the União de Freguesias de Destriz e Reigoso and Binaural Nodar are pleased to announce that the OCUPAI Festival – Iberian Festival of Art and Action will take place this year on the banks of the Alfusqueiro river, more specifically at the Destriz river beach in the aforementioned Municipality of Oliveira de Frades, on the 23rd and 24th of June.
Yesterday, on 10/5, OCUPAI was presented to the press, a press conference attended by the Vice-President of the Municipality of Oliveira de Frades, Carlos Pereira, the President of the União de Freguesias de Destriz e Reigoso, Carlos Lima, and the chairman of the board of Binaural/Nodar, Luís Costa.
The OCUPAI Festival 2018 will have a unifying thematic line: the rebirth of the landscape and rural communities, with all performances and installations being marked, notwithstanding their function of enjoyment, by senses of questioning and renewal of various aspects linked to the rural context (what might the villages of the future look like? what new meanings can we find for the community? how can the forest evolve? what place is there for manual labour? do we need to renew agricultural symbolism? what is the role of women in the rural world? etc.), with several absolute premieres in Portugal and/or participatory performances specially created from the interactions that will take place between artists, the local population and the public.
The OCUPAI Festival, after three years held in the municipality of São Pedro do Sul, in its fourth edition moves to the municipality of Oliveira de Frades, whose villages and communities are in the midst of healing wounds and “moving forward”, after the dramatic fires of October 2017. The choice of location, the village of Destriz, is therefore also a symbol of resistance and determination to overcome adversity, especially since the area surrounding the Alfusqueiro river beach in Destriz remained, almost miraculously, untouched by the aforementioned fires.
The programme of this face-to-face, close-knit festival, both contemporary and popular, includes more than 20 events by artists, associations and collectives from both sides of the border, who will bring various outdoor activities and fantastic performances and installations that will fill the space of the Destriz river beach, some of them national premieres, created by major names in audiovisual theatre, experimental music, multidisciplinary performance, traditional/roots music, multimedia installation, architecture, etc.
So let us welcome Oficina Galega de Outros Asuntos do Movemento, Marina Oural Villapol, Chefa Alonso, Mónica Cofiño Arena, ArtesaCía Transmedia, Pandereteras Gritsanda, Somospeces≠, Teatro e Marionetas de Mandrágora, Erva Daninha, Grupo de Cantares do Rancho Folclórico de Carvalhal de Vermilhas, Associação Pedra do Ar, Banda Filarmónica da Sobreira, Acrof Oliveira de Frades, Núcleo de Arquitectos da Região de Viseu, Grupo de Cantares, Cavaquinhos & Violas de Pinheiro de Lafões etc. etc.
The OCUPAI Festival is part of the tripartite support contract between the Direcção-Geral das Artes, Binaural/Nodar and the municipalities of Oliveira de Frades and Vouzela, integrated into the territorial intervention area of the Direcção Regional de Cultura do Centro.
