In addition to musicians, painters, actors, writers, dancers and circus artists, many other actors in the artistic activity joined this initiative, such as stage directors, curators, choreographers, programmers and cultural managers, as well as many anonymous people who wanted to join.
Alice Vieira, António Victorino d’Almeida, Bela Silva, Carlos Seixas, Joana Bértholo, João Tordo, Maria do Céu Guerra, Maria Teresa Horta and Mário Zambujal are among the more than 30 artists who subscribe to the manifesto “Culture in response to the crisis”, an initiative of the writer Ana Filomena Amaral, launched on March 22.
Since then, many others have come together, such as university professor and poet Margarida Vale de Gato, actress Maria João Luís, writer Patrícia Portela, actor and producer André Gago and deputy Joacine Katar Moreira.
The context is the covid-19 pandemic and the month of April, a symbol of freedom, serves as a motto for this initiative, through which cultural agents from the most diverse areas have decided to publicly stress the fundamental role that different art and culture forms. in responding to the crisis.
It is intended that culture occupies its rightful place, as it has never before, essential in the context of a crisis that will force us to redefine and rethink our way of being and being in the future
The manifesto begins by pointing out that Humanity faces a pandemic with devastating effects, with visible consequences in all countries, in all societies and in all areas of collective existence, such as health, the economy and culture.
