Shall we foster change in the squares, the streets, the monuments?
That’s what happened in Porto, on July 12. A group of artists, activists, decision makers and researchers gathered in the Imperial Square, around the “Monumento ao Esforço Colonizador Português” (Monument to the Portuguese Colonial Effort), for a public act to contest and challenge the dominant narratives and provoke deep reflection.
Why is this monument still here? What does it represent today?
A place rooted in colonial history and violent memories was turned into more than just an object of study, but into a stage for the confident change of collective memory.
This intervention resulted from a series of co-creation workshops promoted by our WP2 team over the last months, with the aim to co-create artistic interventions able to reinterpret the public space from a decolonial perspective.
We thank all the people involved, Rafael Campos, Luciana Bastos, Dori Nigro, Tássia Murad, Pedro Gomes, André Pipa and Noah from the FEBRE Collective, Paulo Pinto, Matilde Seabra, Caterina Araya, Titos Pelembe and Ruben Zacarias, for their dedication and commitment!
