about MARIAS
The Festival das Marias - International Feminine Arts Festival is an interdisciplinary festival with an international character that focuses on the perspective of Feminine art in various areas of artistic creation, that is, the creation and exploration of women in the most diverse areas of artistic creation. proposing to be the stage for the feminine, placing feminine creations and/or those that deal with the feminine under the spotlight.
Having been created within the goals of the Sustainable Development Goals agreed within the scope of the UN - United Nations and which deals with Gender Equality, the festival arises as a response to the need to enhance the distinctive dimension of female creation, often overshadowed by the prejudice of gender, based on a tradition of patriarchal hierarchy and a generalized machismo.
The festival presents several proposals from different artistic areas, all of them works by women, about women, but for everyone, in an attempt to combat sexist discrepancies that persist.
We believe that the fight for gender equality can and should be based on the presentation of the best artistic creators do, nationally and internationally.
The closing event takes place on November 25, International Day for the Fight against Violence against Women, in a demonstration of the proposal to give a voice to women who artistically demonstrate against violence against women, in an agenda that is part of the UN's SDG 16.
Festival das Marias – Brazil Edition
The Festival das Marias 2021 takes place in various locations in the state of São Paulo. The Marias will be in São Bernardo do Campo, São José do Rio Preto and São Paulo, in person and online, enhancing partnerships and highlighting the creations and issues of the female universe.
The 2021 edition will present theater, music, conversation circles in person and will bring to the online universe, as well as music, theater, circus, cinema, dance, workshops and lots of conversations!
The Brazilian edition of Festival das Marias is a collaborative partnership between Brazilian culture agencies Belic Arte.Cultura and Casa da Abelha Cultural, with support from Portuguese companies CADAC - Cia Alentejana de Dança Contemporânea and Associação Lendias d'Encantar.
Festival das Marias – Portugal Edition
The Festival das Marias 2021 takes place in several places in Alentejo. The Marias will be in Beja, Aljustrel, Grândola, Mértola and Santiago do Cacém, fostering partnerships and continuing the work between municipalities and cultural agents initiated by FITA - Alentejo International Theater Festival. It deepens and highlights the systematic work carried out in EntreMarias, which began in January 2020 and which has monthly brought together dozens of Women around themes that are dear to them.
The 2021 edition will present dance, theater, music, cinema, workshops, circles and many conversations to the region! The Portuguese edition of Festival das Marias is a collaborative partnership between CADAC and Associação Lendias d'Encantar.
Directors of the Festival das Marias - Brazil
BELIC ART CULTURE
An art and culture agency established in São Paulo since 2011, works with music and performing arts shows, in particular, representing national and international artists, in addition to providing consultancy for the proposal of projects and proposals for public notices and incentive laws, as well as contribute to the execution of projects and actions of government projects and public and private institutions. In the festival circuit, the Festival das Marias – Brazil edition, the SP Choro In Jazz festivals, SP Roots Music, with emphasis on collaborations for the Marias Festival – Portugal edition, FITA – International Theater Festival of the Alentejo, Maifest, Brooklinfest, Festival América do Sul, Festival Ibero Americano de Teatro de São Paulo, among others.
CULTURAL BEE HOUSE
Cultural agency established in São Bernardo do Campo, focused on strategic planning, artistic agency, booking and executive production. Since 2014, it develops projects between artists, companies and the public sector. Currently, he works with Sepultura, Marina de la Riva, Marcos Almeida and Bruna Caram. It carries out projects in public notices, Sesc and Sesi. He produced shows at national and international festivals such as Rock in Rio, Sofar Sounds and South by South West (SXSW, USA). The agency is also a partner of the Australian Tropicallab that organizes tours of Brazilian artists in Oceania. During the period of social isolation, he worked in the executive production and curatorship of Festival Lá de Casa.
Directors of the Festival das Marias - Portugal
CADAC - COMPANHIA ALENTEJANA DE DANÇA CONTEMPORÂNEA
CADAC is a professional structure of artistic creation that was born in June 2018, in the city of Beja. The creation of this dance company had been considered for several years by some creators in the city - dancers, actors, musicians, and plastic artists - for making felt the need to fill an absence in the region. One of the objectives of its constitution is the establishment of bridges with the creators of the Ibero-American space, fostering a dialogue between creators on both sides of the Atlantic, a dialogue that is almost non-existent in the last years. In 2019, she ventured into the Marias Festival - International Feminine Arts Festival, which in its 1st edition in 2019 was promoted in 10 towns and cities in the region.
LEGENDS OF ENCHANTMENT
Lendias d'Encantar was founded in Beja in 1998 as a professional theater company. His work involves not only the creation and production of theater shows, but also training, cultural dynamization of the region and cultural programming. LdE's productions are essentially based on the work of an actor, small-format shows without major technical or technological resources. It develops its permanent activity in Alentejo, but frequently travels around the country on tour with its tours, and currently has privileged the international tour, with presentations in Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Dominican Republic, between others. In 2014, he ventured into the organization of FITA - Alentejo International Theater Festival, which is now promoted in several towns and cities in the region. FITA is part of two international networks of Iberoamerican festivals, along with 52 other festivals. In 2018, it launched the Ibero-American magazine ESCENARIOS, bilingual and totally dedicated to the theater that takes place in the Ibero-American space, with quarterly periodicity, and also the Colecção Nova Dramaturgia Portuguesa, with eight new texts per year. And since 2019, it has co-hosted the Festival das Marias – International Festival of Arts for Women.
HISTORIC
Born in November 2019 in Beja, Alentejo, Portugal, the festival has a curatorship that considers that the fight for gender equality, in addition to responsibility and civic duty, can and should be based on art as a tool for intervention, training, education and social awareness.
The theme of the feminine and creation in the feminine presents itself as a distinctive element in the realization and programming of each Festival edition. This factor is important for the durability, promotion and dissemination of the event, since the region where it was born lacks cultural activities of an interventional nature and the local public is increasingly looking for innovative elements that escape massification and that are inserted and identify with the difficulties and specificities of the community.
The proposal addressed from the beginning, and which continues to be reinforced in the 3rd edition, presents itself as a catalyst for audiences, allowing one of its main objectives to be fulfilled: combating gender inequality in the community and the positive promotion of artistic creations in the feminine, the festival intends to establish itself as a support platform for the creation and visibility of women artists.
The first edition in Brazil was scheduled and took place from November 5th to 25th, 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, which reinforced the resistance character of female artistic work in a time of immense restrictions and isolation.
As its Portuguese brother, in addition to being a festival in which the diversity and richness of women's arts will be extolled, the festival generated reflections and dialogues about the issues faced by women and explored possible causes and solutions, establishing its purpose. to reaffirm the relations between Iberian countries and brothers, seeking to create spaces for common discussions among all peoples.
Comprehensive in the genres and segments it brought, its editions are dedicated to presenting works carried out by women, provoking reflection and encouraging the search for gender equality.
Relationship with Public Policies
The Festival das Marias observes in particular two sustainable development goals approved by the United Nations in September 2015, which advocate an international development agenda for culture, namely
UN SDG 5 : Achieve gender equality and EMPOWER all women and girls This goal should be reached by 2030 in all countries that ratified the agreement, in September 2015. But, more than achieving the SDG in the next 15 years 5, the gender perspective cuts across all 17 approved SDGs.
UN SDG 16: peace, justice and strong institutions – As the apex of the festival takes place at its closing, purposely set for October 10, the National Day Against Violence against Women.