Demonstrating how art may transform the life of prisoners, young persons at risk, the lonely, the disabled and refugees: This is PARTIS stages Music, Theatre, Photography, Cinema and the Circus Arts at the Gulbenkian Foundation between 12 and 15 January.

Following three years of support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation /PARTIS – Artistic Practices for Social Inclusion is putting various projects on display in the Gulbenkian Foundation highlighting the work produced across the fields of Music, Theatre, Photography, Cinema and the Circus Arts, in a set of presentations and performances taking place between 12 and 15 January, with free entrance.

There were a total of 17 social intervention projects in conjunction with young persons at risk, prisoners and former prisoners, immigrants, the lonely and those experiencing disabilities as well as the long term unemployed among other groups in need of accompanying and inclusion following their selection in late 2013 for the first edition of PARTIS – Artistic Practices for Social Inclusion, which featured Opera in Prison. The three-year support program backed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation helped in implementing and consolidating these projects that continued along their respective paths but that also wished to show to all those interested one side to what they have been able to achieve.

One of the most symbolic moments in this set of public presentations taking place in the Gulbenkian Foundation in January comes with the concert “The Voice and the Gesture”, by the project Mãos que Cantam (Hands that Sing) backed by the Associação Histórias para Pensar (Stories for Thinking Association). This features a choir of deaf men and women who are accompanied on stage by members of the Gulbenkian Choir and Orchestra , reflecting “a joint work within the final artistic objective of expressing in Portuguese Sign Language determined musical concepts, such as the notion of intensity, polyphony, metrics and the formal structure of a musical piece beyond the interpretation of the poem in itself”, explained Sérgio Peixoto, artistic director of the Mãos que Cantam project, which is striving to publish a manual on music associated signing to raise awareness and support teachers of Musical Education to integrate students both with and without hearing into their classes.

Throughout four days of the This is PARTIS presentation, there is music as well as theatre and the exhibition of a number of documentaries. There is also a workshop in the circus arts and capoeira run by the Mala Mágica (Magic Bag) project, organised by Chapitô and working with young persons from the Bela Vista Education Centre and the Navarro de Paiva Education Centre.

On 13 January, there is a conference to discuss how art may serve as a driver for inclusion and social change and counting on contributions from François Matarasso, researcher and consultant for over three decades in the field of community artistic practices, Paulo Lameiro, artistic director of the Opera in Prison project, and Rui Vieira Nery, among others.