Aveiro Arts House / VIC AIR

Navalha Cultural Association is consistently developing projects in the fields of participatory arts, cultural programming, community development, conservation of heritage and international cooperation. Focused on the conservation and promotion of the cultural legacy of the multifaceted artist Vasco Branco (1919-2014), Navalha is the association responsible for the development of the cultural aspects of the VIC // Aveiro Arts House project. Sustained Action Their crew of artists, thinkers and technicians have developed a sustained cultural action in the territory for a few years now, collaborating in content production and programming for several of Aveiro’s most relevant artistic initiatives, such as the International Biennial of Artistic Ceramics, the Festival dos Canais, Criatech and Prisma festivals or the book celebration event Festa do Livro. Strongly involved in Aveiro’s application process for European Capital of Culture in 2027, our association has recently been awarded grants by Direcção Geral das Artes, Direcção Regional de Cultura do Centro and Garantir Cultura. Decentralisation of Culture Assuming that art —in all its unlikely forms— can and should play a fundamental role in society and in everyday life, we strongly believe in the accessibility and decentralisation of culture. Besides curating cultural programming away from the lobbies of Portugal’s main urban centres, Navalha is deeply interested in the development of participatory arts initiatives in rural and peripheral areas. Such was the case with Re_Emergir, a community-driven project we’ve produced in collaboration with the Spanish association Ecoopera at the former mining village of Borralha, Montalegre. Digging Tunnels At a time when networks seem to be one of the main convergence points of the dominant speech, they choose to dig cultural tunnels instead, substituting the ubiquitous shallowness of networking for the generation and preservation of deeper relations amongst projects, spaces, individuals and institutions. With a strong focus on the promotion of mobility in the arts, Navalha’s activities have granted them the participation in national and international cooperation programs, such as the Creatour creative tourism research project, the European mobility programs Tandem Europe and iPortunus Houses, the Challenges for Cultural Heritage Management in Tourism international conference or the European platform Culture Action Europe, dedicated to the analysis, reflection and development of sustainable cultural policies for Europe. The Future of Tradition They believe in the employment of state-of-the-art tools and experimental approaches towards the preservation and promotion of our traditions. Together with the artist’s family, Navalha is fundamentally engaged in the promotion of Vasco Branco’s artistic legacy. During the past few years we’ve developed and collaborated in multiple actions within this field, such as the rehabilitation and digitalisation of Vasco Branco’s movies, the publishing of a bilingual book about the artist’s deep connection to the city of Aveiro or, most recently, the celebrations of his centenary: a transdisciplinary event that included exhibitions, installations, round tables, guided tours, outdoors screenings and shared readings. Arts for Freedom and Participation Declaring the democratisation of art as one of our main goals, they believe in the development of a civil society where every citizen plays a shared and active role towards a sociopolitical context based on participation, and on freedom of artistic expression and speech, which they consider to be fundamental human rights. Partners Seeking to develop collaborative mechanisms between cultural agents, institutions and other creative projects in the region, Navalha has worked in partnership with a series of entities, from which we highlight Câmara Municipal de Aveiro, the Culture Action Europe platform, the Modern Art Museum of Medellín, the Ecomuseu do Barroso, MitOst e.V., the Portuguese Short Film Agency, INET-md (Ethnomusicology Institute from the Aveiro University), Porto Editora, Agrupamento de Escolas José Estêvão, GrETUA, Cinemateca Portuguesa, Porto Cineclub, Grémio Caldense, Ao Cabo Teatro, Sonoscopia, Gerador, Viral Agenda, MUSA - Music School or the 4IS association.