The opening weekend of the Festival Imaterial, in Évora, included two events organized in collaboration with the IHC and the IN2PAST Associated Laboratory, which took place at the Garcia de Resende Theatre.

On Saturday, Sanjay Seth was the special guest of a panel, which also gathered João Pedro Cachopo and Mariana Pinto dos Santos, around the topic “Music, art, science and the decolonization of history“. The conversation took as its starting point Seth’s recent work on the challenges that music and art pose to the discipline of History and some of its fundamental assumptions. Luís Trindade was the moderator.

On Sunday, it was Catarina Laranjeiro‘s turn to present the lecture “From Cuba to Cuba: from the Alentejo to the Caribbean“, a transnational trip through the second half of the 20th century, having as its root Amílcar Cabral’s relationship with Cuba, in the Alentejo, and Cuba, the country which, apart from providing military support to the PAIGC, also collaborated in Guinean cultural education, namely in the field of cinema.

“Imaterial was born following the attribution of Intangible Heritage of Humanity status by UNESCO to Cante alentejano, the major musical expression of the Alentejo region; and from the will to promote dialogue between this music that sounds like the voice of the land worked from sunrise to sunset, and so many others that, in different geographies, embody local traditions.” The rich and varied programme will continue until 27 May.

More pictures from the festival