Making a balance of Aveiro as the capital of Portuguese culture is an essential exercise, in particular for the potential that this title could have brought to the city and to the Municipality. Recently, in an interview with Ria, Bruno Dos Reis, former director of Greta, has made some relevant considerations on cultural policies in Aveiro, so the times could not be cheaper.
By João Sarmento *
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Historically, culture has always been a bad relative and Bruno Dos Reis underlines it. In 2015, Aveiro, as a district capital, was completely immersed in darkness. Despite some progress, the city remains in a fragile situation or in a certain fragility, far from being truly asserting itself as a cultural reference. On the first day of 2024, already as the capital of Portuguese culture, Avess saw the prices of the museum increase by 40% by decision of the Oireirense executive. A decision that, at the beginning, does not honor the title that the city of Aveiro has received. As if this were not enough, in the first month of the year, we lost one of the largest spaces to promote and spread the culture, the mythical and irreverent black market. Thus worsening the cultural offer in the city, since the concert of Avenida Café had also been closed by the strong real estate pressure that persecutes the entire municipality.
In recent years, the city of Aveiro has not established itself as the capital of culture. In fact, the investment of the Camaario manager in this sector is not even the highest in the Aveiro region. It is inconceivable that cities with a smaller number of inhabitants than Aveiro can provide their citizens a better cultural offer than the district capital. This, in fact, shows the way in which culture is devalued by the Aveiro City Council.
Investing in culture is much more than creating infrastructure and buying new equipment. Culture is people, it is creativity, it is imagination. This investment should focus on the formation of its main actors: artists. The investment must also serve to promote and disseminate cultural events, often neglected, as well as to democratize access to culture, making it more accessible and inclusive, both as an intervening and as a spectator. Only then can we have a true cultural democracy and promote collective growth at an intellectual, spiritual and social level. Culture is one of the fundamental pillars for the development of the critical spirit, essential for our progress as a society.
Throughout the year of the Portuguese capital of culture, Aveiro did not participate in the creation of new cultural or theatrical associations, nor the inauguration of the spaces dedicated to artistic production. Neither artistic residences, essential to encourage a true cultural center of any new space for the creation of culture in the municipality or the construction of artistic houses to encourage a true artistic and cultural center. What this manager did was, in essence, to continue with the current cultural agenda, which made only a little more of foreign cultural groups and put the seal of the capital of Portuguese culture. As if this were not enough, street artists were prevented from exercising their art, with requirements for shows repeatedly rejected by the mayor himself.
During this year, we still had the charge of the charge of the mysterious art work, chosen unilaterally by the president. The executive has chosen not to hope anyone, nor discuss the type of work of art that would have been placed in a central point of the city and emblematic like bridges. Here is the real problem: there is no debate, no dialogue, there is no opening. Citizens are not taken into consideration, the opposition is not taken into consideration; After all, there is no promotion of participatory democracy. When politicians take this posture to ignore those who elected them, it becomes incompatible to structure a solid plan to exploit and improve any domain in appreciation.
Due to the lack of a true strategic plan for culture, the cultural and theatrical associations of the Municipality were not duly involved in the capital of Portuguese culture. When a municipality has the privilege of receiving a title of this reach, it should start by meeting local cultural agents, in order to allow and evolve the culture that has already been developed in the city. Only then can culture be exploited in a municipality, involving cultural roots and making them grow and thrive in an organic and sustainable way. Not doing this, we lose precious goods such as Bruno, forcing them to change cities so that they can perform and have their professional career and success. Unfortunately, Aveiro does not do what is necessary to attract and keep the best. I wish Bruno’s best happiness and successes and those who have had to leave their land to embrace new challenges, hoping that the city of Guimarães will offer to Bruno the recognition and opportunities that the city of Aveiro has denied him.
Epillant, if we make a real reflection on the inheritance that was the capital of Portuguese culture, we conclude that what remains is an authentic emptiness and (more) a lost opportunity to exploit Aveiro as a true capital of the cultural district and to design the Municipality on the national and international panorama as a center of cultural creation and diffusion. The final balance is that of a wasted promise, which has translated into an opportunity lost for the city, its artists and its community.
* President of the socialist youth of Aveiro.
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