Awakening, it can be the magic word. Awakening arouses thinking - not the pre-produced thinking that results from acquired knowledge – but the emotional thinking, free and critical thinking, that results from what is heard, seen, felt and discussed. This is a Festival, a whirlwind of spoken and written words, of played and sung voices, that roam free, besiege places and spring from the countless s
cenic spaces. It’s the outcome of endless conversations that took place in the city squares. Sounds, images, music and forms come together with words and thoughts, recreating other narratives from places where memories are consolidated, rescued from the past. It is an exciting collective process of re-appropriation of public space and heritage. The Festival is thus a matrix of citizenship, a source of collective awareness of the right to the city, the right to creative freedom and cultural enjoyment. Artes à Rua is this versatile and unsubmissive reality that does not let itself be labelled. The Festival takes place in Évora, in August, in various places. The squares of the city are flooded with music and other arts of the World - intangible heritages of peoples of many cultures – of songs and arts proudly mixed together. Through music and the other arts, we see each other through our differences. These differences are softened, whether aesthetic or religious tendencies, skin colour or sexual orientation, all are respected. In the squares of Artes à Rua, through the mediation of music and other arts, we simulate a World of Peace, of equals, of cooperation and respect for the right to be different.
