Ecotemporaries: Matilde Campilho

Ecotemporaries

An open community of readers in green and imaginary spaces

Creating an echo with the future – Lisbon Capital Verde European 2020 – the contemporary art biennial BoCA, in partnership with EGEAC, starts in 2019 a long-term project that relates the occupation of green spaces in the city of Lisbon, its accessibility and fruition by creating an inclusive and accessible reading community. How can reading become a reflexive gesture around current events and biodiversity and, at the same time, be a broadly inclusive and artistic gesture?

Ecotemporaries is a community of reading in green spaces in the city of Lisbon. Open, inclusive and accessible, it is made up of a diverse group: normal-sighted, visually impaired and hearing impaired. Ecotemporaries share the same time (contemporary) and the same space (environment) around access to literature and its relationship with the place.
For each session, a guest – a public figure representative of Portuguese contemporary culture and society – chooses a book, which should be read at home. Live, some excerpts will be read among those present, the book is presented by the guest, as well as the relationship between the book and that green space. The cultivation of the garden, presented by its gardener, and the cultivation of literature, developed by the guest and the participants. Some books will be printed in Braille, others will be distributed free of charge and there will be live translation into Portuguese sign language, making reading and dialogue accessible to all.
Inclusive, accessible, reflecting on the environment and the artistic experience, everyone is welcome here. We are all Ecotemporaneous here.

Invited: MATILDE CAMPILHO (writer)
Chosen book: “Efabulations” by John Berger

Ecotemporaries
Conception: John Romão
Production: BoCA
Co-production: EGEAC Espaço Público
Support: ACAPO, Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, Estufa Fria, Obnósis Editora