A Tendency to Forget: Reparar (n)o Passado Para Resistir ao Esquecimento. Entrevista com a Artista Ângela Ferreira

Viviane Almeida; Lurdes Macedo; Renata Flaiban Zanete

doi:10.21814/vista.5524

Authors

Viviane Almeida Centro de Estudos Humanísticos, Escola de Letras, Artes e Ciências Humanas, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3779-4890
Lurdes Macedo Centro de Investigação em Comunicação Aplicada, Cultura e Novas Tecnologias, Universidade Lusófona, Porto, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1577-1313
Renata Flaiban Zanete Centro de Estudos Humanísticos, Escola de Letras, Artes e Ciências Humanas, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5241-7823

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21814/vista.5524

Abstract

During the "Summer School in Communication and Culture for Development", held at the University of Minho in 2020, the researchers who conducted this interview were engaged in the project Cultures, Past & Present (2018–2022). Specifically, their focus was on understanding the history, memory, and narratives surrounding ethnology museums in Portugal and Mozambique. Margot Dias' groundbreaking contributions in integrating ethnographic film into studies with the Makonde people of Mozambique naturally emerged as a central aspect of the research, connected with Jorge Dias' major role in establishing the Museum of Ethnology in Lisbon. As the research progressed, two researchers and artists emerged who had significant engagement with the Dias couple's ethnographic missions, particularly focusing on Margot's role, albeit with very different approaches: anthropologist and filmmaker Catarina Alves Costa, a professor at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at Nova University of Lisbon, and artist Ângela Ferreira, a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon. The exploratory study into Ângela Ferreira's artistic career soon highlighted the importance of engaging with this creator. It was within this context that the interview presented here was conducted, spanning two sessions on November 12 and 19, 2020, yet retaining the relevance of the themes and issues discussed. In fact, these topics and concerns are very much on the agenda, especially considering the recent momentum given to the debate on historical reparations in Portugal after the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, expressed his endorsement for such reparations to the former colonies during a meeting with foreign journalists on April 23, 2024.

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Author Biographies

Viviane Almeida, Centro de Estudos Humanísticos, Escola de Letras, Artes e Ciências Humanas, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal

Viviane Almeida has a master's degree in Social Education and Community Intervention from the Lisbon School of Education and is a PhD candidate in Cultural Studies at the University of Minho. She is a researcher at the Research Team on Transcultural Studies of the Centre for Humanistic Studies of the University of Minho and a doctoral fellow of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (reference 2023.03741.BD). Her research focuses on places of traumatic memory in blogs and travel books in the context of contemporary Portuguese travel narratives. She works as a cultural mediator and writing trainer, collaborating with different audiences and institutions in Portugal. She has already co-organised a collection of short literary formats (poetry and micro-tales). Her research interests span cultural studies, travel literature, authorship and self-writing.

Lurdes Macedo, Centro de Investigação em Comunicação Aplicada, Cultura e Novas Tecnologias, Universidade Lusófona, Porto, Portugal

Lurdes Macedo has a PhD in Communication Sciences with a specialisation in Intercultural Communication from the University of Minho and a post-doctorate in Communication for Development from the same institution. She is currently a researcher at the Centre for Research in Applied Communication, Culture and New Technologies at Universidade Lusófona while also holding the position of assistant professor at Universidade Lusófona — Centro Universitário do Porto, where she has been teaching since 2008. She has also taught at the Escola Superior de Educação de Viseu and at the Universidade Politécnica de Maputo. Her primary research interests encompass intercultural communication, communication and culture for development, female participation in development processes, cultural identities and the Portuguese-speaking cultural space. She was a researcher on the Communication and Society Research Centre's projects Memories, Cultures and Identities: The Past and Present of Intercultural Relations in Mozambique and Portugal (2018-2022) and Identity Narratives and Social Memory: The (Re) Making of Lusophony in Intercultural Contexts (2009-2013).

Renata Flaiban Zanete, Centro de Estudos Humanísticos, Escola de Letras, Artes e Ciências Humanas, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal

Renata Flaiban Zanete has a PhD in Comparative Modernities from — the University of Minho and a master's degree in Language and Education from — the Faculty of Education at — the University of São Paulo. She is an actress, producer, playwright and founder, with Fabiano Assis, of Companhia Rodamoinho de Teatro (2001), based in Braga since 2017. She is the artistic director and stage director of the theatre production A Céu Aberto (2022) with the Grupo de Teatro Comunitário do Campo (Associação Rural Vivo - Campo do Gerês). They are currently working on the second show, and they will continue to collaborate until 2025 in the Partis & Art for Change initiative (a project funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and "la Caixa"). She has worked as a trainer in the areas of creative writing, theatre and the art of storytelling in various projects and institutions in Portugal. Her current research involves gender issues, feminist and cultural studies, the performing arts and comparative literature.

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