Citemor is a "fragile" festival that seeks to recover the years lost by the crisis



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Since 2013, the Citemor has been seen without structural support from the state, and this year will be considered with biennial funding from the General Directorate of the Arts. It took five years to try to survive and the end of the festival in Montemor-o-Velho, in the district of Coimbra, arrived on the table, tells the director Lusa to the director, Armando Valente

support, local complicity in the region and, above all, with the "artistic community", given the involvement of many years in their own productions and creative residences in the village, he explained

Still today, with guaranteed funding, feeling the "marks of these five years", says Armando Valente to Lusa, considering that the festival returns "almost to zero".

"At age 40, we start from scratch, having only a capital that results from this practice of

The history of Citemor, despite the passage to 1978, knew the guidelines which still apply today in 1992, when the present team began its work.

"The festival, very early, discovered its production side and launched a program of creative residencies in Portugal, "says Lusa Armando Valente.the director insists on the importance, through residencies and in productions, that the festival plays a very active role" in the affirmation of two generations of creators , and for the consolidation of certain paths "

the trajectory has always been" growing ", pointing towards the end of the 1990s as a moment of" missed opportunity "to guarantee better conditions of life. welcome and rehearsal, in a perspective of affirmation not only of the festival, but also a regular in the village.

Despite this, the festival continues to grow and even "with a gradual disinvestment, already in the years of the" Socratic governments ", that was not felt" in the Citemor

According to Armando Valente , the break coincides with the entry of the government of Passos Coelho and with the year 2013 – in which the cuts were intensified under the so-called pact of the troika – when the Citemor no longer access to annual funding.

"We thought to end the festival"

Today, Armando Valente notes that these years have led to the emergence of "Citemor" and the "

" In this edition we have taken over creative residencies and the festival appears with a little more muscle and coproduce works and creations of creators. Armando Vale Considering "all the tests and tests" to which the Citemor has already been submitted, the organization is aware of the "fragility" of what they have built

"We should already think and plan for 2020, 2021 and 2022. This is not stimulating for the project, it conditions the project and the contribution it can make, "he says, referring to the fact that they can not

Nevertheless, for the future, he feels no fear, no apprehension, because he feels that everything is in danger, given the precarious nature of the holiday.

However, there is also room to look with some optimism for the years to come, or the calo gained over the past 20 years, when they started organizing the festival "with a budget of zero."

"Our cows were still on the bone. We know what steps we need to take for this effective recovery. Now, there is a big setback and all that has been lost is taking a long time to recover, "he concludes.

The Citemor Festival, in Montemor-o-Velho, which extends back to Coimbra and Figueira da Foz, begins today and continues until August 11, with the music of Ivo Dimchev, a return of Angelica Lidell and a work of the Theater of the Dress on the salines, among other shows in an event that has the theme "Memory and Oblivion."

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