Ponto d'Orvalho
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Full project title
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Project Description
Ponto d'Orvalho is a regenerative space, of creation and renewal. A field to explore the dynamic transformations of the environment and their impact on our collective future and social structures. With a focus on research and experimentation, Ponto d'Orvalho is a transdisciplinary festival open to discussion and environmental action through artistic, social and ecological interventions.
The third edition of Ponto d'Orvalho will take place in September 2022.
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
Which funds
Description of the project
Summary
Ponto d'Orvalho is a regenerative space, of creation and renewal. A field to explore the dynamic transformations of the environment and their impact on our collective future and social structures. With a focus on research and experimentation, Ponto d'Orvalho is a transdisciplinary festival open to discussion and environmental action through artistic, social and ecological interventions.
In Ponto d'Orvalho different artistic disciplines come together with the intention of producing transformative collective experiences and creating receptive modes of perception and participation. The project proposes the disciplinary intersection through a hybrid program, with emerging and established creators, national and international, who seek the relationship with the environment and change to environmental issues and ecological awareness through art and culture.
The following creatives, artists and speakers have passed through the last two editions (2020 and 2021): Alfredo Sendim, António Poppe, Ari Tavares, Evy Jokhova, Fábio Colaço, Fernanda Botelho, Inês Tartaruga Água, Kino, Laila Sakini, Lula Pena, Marc Leiber, María Inés Plaza Lazo, Isa Guitana, Marta Wengorovius, Mattia Tosti, Norberto Lobo, Pandemónio Studio, Piny Orchidaceae, Stav Yeini, Yu Lin Humm and Xavier Paes.
At a time of social and ecological instability, we welcome a trans-generational audience that seeks to relate to the environment in a regenerative and sustainable way, through the sharing of knowledge, artistic and collective practices. The last editions of Ponto d'Orvalho took place over three days with a multiform program of arts in the landscape. The festival focuses on the importance of more conscious eating practices and presents a range of national and international artistic proposals: concerts, visual arts, performances, holistic practices, talks, workshops, DJ sets, artistic journeys through nature and performative meals.
Key objectives for sustainability
The festival takes place in the Portuguese countryside at Montado do Freixo do Meio (Alentejo), one of the most relevante ecological projects with Regenerative Agroecology and Food Sovereignty as an ethical base. Focused in food production on a regenerative agroforestry model and design, recognizing the major role of trees in the ecosystem services. Ponto d’Orvalho brings together artists, scientists, farmers, cooks, philosophers, activists and local experts which are interested in fostering transformation and create narratives which help us to envision a more sustainable future.
The festival has a 0 waste policy where no plastic or other disposable material is used. Since it’s a small-scale festival, the meals are all served with normal porcelain and glass. All meals are made with food from the region and local producers focusing on the importance of more conscious eating practices, in collaboration with Cooperativa Integral Minga, Montado do Freixo do Meio and Gandum Village.
We value and promote public or electric transportation to the festival, car sharing and electric bicycles.
We explore and engage with the past and present interactions between humans and the environment in order to integrate new perspectives that allow us to address issues of environmental justice, sustainability and ecology.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Ponto d’Orvalho is a regenerative festival that crosses generational and disciplinary borders to explore artistic, social and ecological action. It takes place in Montemor-o-Novo, in the Alentejo, one of the most rural and underpopulated regions in Europe.
The festival aims to create an awareness of environmental sustainability through the arts, with live performance, visual arts and site-specific events.
The Arts are central, not peripheral, to social change: art can connect with our analytical brain, but it is particularly great at connecting with the more intuitive parts of ourselves and is one of the most effective ways of engaging us emotionally. Through art, we want to trigger new collective paradigms that provoke transformation.
We desire to foster the sharing and exchange of knowledge in a space of intimacy, and for this reason we are careful not to oversize the event's capacity. We want to promote a space where audience, speakers, and artists can be together, sharing activities and meals, with fresh and organic products from the Montemor region. The food is carefully prepared by a local team, and the meals are long and relaxed.
We hope that everyone can enjoy this festival with time, without rush, connecting with nature, but also with each other and with themselves.
We also well-being through a diverse program, including live performances, workshops, talks and hikes through nature. The program is sparse but dynamic, making it possible to enjoy it in an organic way: a walk in the countryside with artistic activities can take a few hours, followed by a long dinner and, only afterwards, a live performance.
Key objectives for inclusion
We team up with partners which are inclusive, with the aim to initiate horizontal structures, shared leadership and a strong drive toward change. We search for works and ideas which bring together artistic practices, environmentalism and the spiritual values of reverence for nature. We want to engage in projects which emphasize the act of repair, care and make us attuned and sensible for embodied experience.
Ponto d'Orvalho is a space where access to all collective groups is privileged. We operate in a large natural space with no structural barriers that make free circulation in the space possible to everyone.The multidisciplinary and diverse program invites a broad audience to enjoy the festival. We are also developing an ecological and artistic program with the community intended to bring the local audience closer, and create a space for bilateral sharing of knowledge and experiences.
During the period leading up to the festival, a program of educational services will be developed with the local schools at Montemor-o-Novo, which includes visits to the Farm Montado do Freixo do Meio, conversations with the artists and a planting action in Gandum Village, a new project with a regenerative approach to tourism. We also offer a discount ticket for local residents that includes all activities, concerts, vegetarian meals with local products and access to the ecological campsite.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
Ponto d'Orvalho is a transdisciplinary festival open to discussion and environmental action through artistic, social and ecological interventions.
Ponto d'Orvalho seeks a greater intimacy in creation and in the relationship with the audiences, allowing for another proximity and reflecting a blurring between culture/art and life. It seeks to reinvent the spaces of creation and presentation, to deepen the openness to dialogue between various artistic disciplines and cultural practices more connected with nature and the more-than-human communities. The presence of environmental sustainability concerns in the programming is crucial, as is the participation of the local community.
Diversity and inclusion is sure to be at the epicenter of our curatorial program. We invite a range of local, national and international artists and speakers, both emerging and established, with a program focused on diversity and intersectionality. We welcome a trans-generational audience, both international and local, specialized and just curious to experience our festival in an intimate setting.
We promote the construction of new values focused on environmental sustainability, through artistic events, talks, workshops and a tree planting action in an agro-forest with students and parents from a school in Montemor.
We want to open Ponto d'Orvalho to the whole community and that is why some of the activities are free of charge, and there are also discount tickets for the public of the region.
