Culture

At the end of the summer, there is MIMO and lots of world in the Historic Centre of Porto

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Art, performance and technology together with workshops, films, lectures and concerts that have never been seen before in Portugal, all completely free of charge, to close the summer in the city. From September 23rd to 25th, the Historic Centre of Porto celebrates culture and heritage with MIMO, a festival of Brazilian origin, democratic, diverse, multi-gender, egalitarian and multi-territorial. And it's going to rain poetry on Invicta (City of Porto).

“It was evident that MIMO had to be in Porto, for the people of Porto and for everyone who visits us. A festival for everyone”, Rui Moreira underlined, about the approach of the founder and director of MIMO to bring the festival to Invicta, after four editions in Amarante.

On Monday afternoon, the Mayor of Porto and Lu Araújo presented, at Casa do Roseiral, the Porto version of one of the most cherished festivals in Brazil. For Rui Moreira, it is obvious that “we could not be left out”. “It will be a remarkable event in the cultural life of the city. Those who live in Porto and those who visit us will have a unique range of choices and a set of artistic and cultural suggestions of extremely high quality", considers the mayor.

On her side, the MIMO director assumed to be “fulfilling one of my great dreams that was to bring the festival to Porto”. “It gives us great honour,” added Lu Araújo, happy to “occupy the historical heart of this beautiful city.”

In unison, both argued that the coming of MIMO to Porto could not be just for a “warm up”. “Porto asks for more”, defends the director, while the mayor ensures that “culture will continue to be the key to the development of this city”.

In Invicta, MIMO will pass through Largo do Amor de Perdição, Jardim da Cordoaria, Jardim das Virtudes, Jardins do Palácio de Cristal, but also goes to the Rectory of the University of Porto, the Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Porto, the igrejas do Carmo, Carmelitas Descalços, Nossa Senhora da Vitória, São Bento da Vitória, and São José das Taipas.

And it will be – indeed – for everyone. As Rui Moreira said, “if there are words that are associated with the MIMO festival, it is inclusion and intervention” with the Mimo Sem Barreiras strand, which includes areas reserved for people with disabilities and reduced mobility, sign language interpreters, guides, obstacle-free routes and a totem that will be posted with the program in braille.

Music in multiple languages and a single Port of encounter

MIMO brings to Porto, from Brazil, the hip hop of Emicida and the popular music of the three decades of Chico César's career. Also, the Nigerian Afrobeat of Asa (Asha) and Ray Lema's homage to Franco Luambo - the father of the Congolese rumba, Intangible Heritage of Humanity by Unesco. From England comes DJ and director Don Letts and brings with him the union of punk to reggae, in addition to films and a lecture on his work.

Music continues to travel through Porto's Historic Centre with the sound of oud, the Arabic lute of Tunisian Jean-Pierre Smadja and Algerian Medhi Haddab. Award-winning novelist, poet, playwright, philosopher and former minister of Cape Verdean Culture, Mário Lúcio brings the Creole sound with the European pre-release of the album “Migrants”.

From Ukraine comes the classical pianist and leader of popularity on the internet, Valentina Lisitsa, who calls herself “the queen of the Rachmanino”, and the zither of the Indian Nishat Khan, who has already collaborated with Eric Clapton or Carlos Santana, will also be heard at Invicta.

Portugal is represented in MIMO by DJ Branko, for the joint performance of pianist Pedro Burmester & Quarteto de Cordas de Matosinhos, by the Vimaran guitarist Manuel de Oliveira, and also for the complicity of the jazz of Maria João & Mário Laginha.

Closing the exhibition “Mulheres que fazem barulho - Cenas do Rock Português I" (Women who make noise - Scenes of Portuguese Rock I), promoted by the Casa Comum, of the Rectory of the University of Porto, the female voices of Ana Deus, Lena D'água, Anabela Duarte, Sandra Baptista, Mitó Mendes, Carolina Brandão and Marta Abreu are sung.

Between concert and Carnival ball, the Brazilians of the Orquestra Voadora merge samba, frevo, maracatu, afrobeat, and soundtracks of Tarantino films in a unique party. And because it is a lot of Portugal and Brazil that this MIMO is made, we also highlight a recital celebrating the bicentennial of the independence of Brazil, conducted by pianist Fabio Centanni.

There is music, a lot, but there are also workshops, masterclasses and lectures to be held by the festival's headlines, and also a famous Poetry Rain with thousands of poems printed on pieces of colourful paper to be thrown from the top of the church towers, in homage to great names of poetry. In Porto, Portuguese poetry will be released from Livraria Lello.

Sound System in Virtudes and the Amazónia in the Casa Comum

At MIMO in Porto, Jardim das Virtudes receives great names linked to sound system culture, with emphasis on the British Channel One and Brother Culture Sound System, or the Brazilian Ministereo Público Sound System.

In partnership with the University of Porto and the Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Porto, the festival presents the "Casa Comum Amazónia", a multicultural and multimedia project, unprecedented in Portugal, consisting of a series of lectures, visual arts exhibitions and performances by artists of different ethnicities, born in the region of the largest rainforest in the world.

Born 18 years ago in Olinda, Brazil, MIMO brings together the songs of the world and several other artistic manifestations, "occupying" cities of the World Heritage and the Creative Cities Network of Unesco, on both sides of the Atlantic. Unique in its scope and concept, the festival promotes respect for different cultures, the cities that receive it and its historical and cultural assets, valuing human and artistic development.

The full information can be found on the festival page.