To Be Seen

To be seen is the tactic of being natural: to occupy public space simply by being in the street, under trees, around fountains. without ostentation or disguise. It marks the arrival of new people in the Alentejo who are not afraid or ashamed to inhabit the street in full enjoyment of public space. We worked in and inhabited parks, fields, squares, roads: Portuguese and migrants talking, eating, dancing, playing music. There were people looking at us with astonishment, discomfort, empathy, curiosity. Over time, what was first received with strangeness became part of the daily life of a region with countless cultures in the search of dialogue and encounter. During the performances of BOWING (2021) and BOWING BACK (2022), the streets swarmed with hundreds of people. Portuguese and migrants were side by side, shoulder to shoulder, walking and looking at each other, audiences mingling with performers. The phenomenon of mass migration was there for all to see. In relation to the 2021 performance, Madalena said: The participants are calmly enjoying an artistic moment. They are not working. They are not hurrying to the bus that takes them to the greenhouses. They are simply walking through the village to be seen and thus to acknowledge this phenomenon: that São Teotónio is indeed, at this moment, very Eastern.