Biography

Ana Bigote Vieira graduated in Modern and Contemporary History (ISCTE-IUL). She specialised in the fields of Contemporary Culture and Philosophy (NOVA FCSH), and in Theatre Studies (University of Lisbon). Between 2009 and 2012, she was a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Performance Studies of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Her PhD thesis “NO ALEPH, para um olhar sobre o Serviço ACARTE da Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian entre 1984 e 1989” received an Honorable Mention in Contemporary History from the Mário Soares Foundation. This research regards the performative role of Modern Art Museums, focusing on the cultural transformations that Portugal went through after entering the European Union – and the way in which they find, in the body, a particular ground of expression.

She is a member of the group Culture, Identities and Power of the Institute of Contemporary History, where she co-organised, with Luís Trindade and Giulia Bonali, the cycle “When Where the 80s?”. She is a co-founder, publisher, and curator of the platform baldio |Performance Studies, and a playwright in theatre and dance. She received a Dwight Conquergood Award at the Performance Studies International #17, Utrecht. She is a member of the BUALA Association. Along with Sandra Lang (CH), she has organised a series of discursive and performative events regarding the relationship between art and politics. Currently, she is developing, with choreographer João dos Santos Martins, a project of collective historicisation of dance in Portugal “Para uma timeline a haver”, that has the form of an installation/exhibition.

Research fields

• Theatre
• Performance and dance studies
• Cultural history
• Contemporary philosophy
• Frontier studies

Selected publications

• Vieira, Ana Bigotte & André Silveira, “Lourdes Castro and Manuel Zimbro | Un Autre Livre Rouge: un autre livre, un autre rouge, un autre autre,” in Art, Global Maoism, and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, edited by Jacopo Galimberti, Noemi de Haro García and Victoria H. F. Scott. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019. [link]
• Vieira, Ana Bigotte, “Turn, turtle! Uso [Use], Espaço [Space] and Falta [Lack/Missing],” in Turn Turtle, Turn! Reenacting The Institute, edited by Elke van Campenhout. Berlin: Alexander Verlag, 2017. [link]
• Vieira, Ana Bigotte & Ricardo Seiça Salgado, “The 60s, TDR, and Performance Studies: from a 2009 interview by Ana Bigotte Vieira and Ricardo Seiça Salgado, revised in 2014 by Richard Schechner,” in Performed Imaginaries, by Richard Schechner. Abingdon: Routledge, 2015. [link]
• Vieira, Ana Bigotte. “”I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet… but your kids are gonna love it”,” in L’Internationale Online – Decolonising Museums, 71-95. Ghent: L’Internationale Online, 2015. [link] 🔓

Main projects

• Co-coordinator, with Maria João Brilhante (CET — University of Lisbon), of the project “ARTHE — Archiving Theatre” — Hosted by the Centre for Theatre Studies and the IHC and funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/ART-PER/1651/2021). [link]
• Co-coordinator, with João dos Santos Martins, of the project “A Timeline To Be: periodization and collective mapping concerning dance as an artistic practice in 20th century’s Portugal” — With the support of the Sá da Bandeira Theatre, Viriato Theatre, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and the DGARTES. [link]