WHO ARE WE?

A multidisciplinary and undisciplined platform born in 2020. UMA focuses on researching, creating, and presenting projects that foster horizontal and disheveled collaborations between artists and researchers from different areas, between thought and practices. UMA was co-founded in Porto, Portugal, by Joana Magalhães, Mafalda Lencastre, and Maria Inês Marques.

 

WHAT DO WE PROPOSE?

Generosity-oriented curation: To understand programing as a collaborative and creative act between curators and artists/researchers towards a multiversal dramaturgy, anchored in the collective experience of the real.

Creative collaboration: To promote the collaborative and creative work among researchers, artists, curators, and programmers from different nationalities, areas of expertise, and affiliations.

Transversality: To promote the dialogue between disciplines as well as between academic and cultural institutions.

Lab practices: To promote contemporary ground-breaking research and experimentation.

Periphery as the center: To privilege projects by artists and researchers who position themselves critically outside the spheres of capital-art and capital-academia.

Open access: To enable the open access to critical thinking and artistic practices programed by UMA, bringing the spectator/participant closer to the kaleidoscopic dynamics of the creative act.

 

 

WHAT DO WE DO?

UMA’s curatorial gesture congregates today’s artistic and epistemological diversity around one dramaturgical problem that fuels the year-long activities. As curators and artists, we intend to bring into play, via this problem, the slice of contemporary reality that stimulates but, at the same time, disturbs us. Through this collective play, curation as dramaturgy turns into a dynamic and wide-reaching season that will materialize in four axes: 

DIGITAL / Curation of a multidisciplinary online platform that hosts the regular publication of contents authored by UMA and its guest collaborators, which are devised specifically for this format, in dialogue with the dramaturgical problem that shapes the year-long programing. The digital platform is at the core of UMA’s activities, as it allows open and democratic access to all contents. It hosts diverse formats, including the live streaming of performance and conferences; archives of exhibitions and installations; photographic and video works; podcasts; literary, scientific, and essay writing.

LIVE / Performances, live shows, exhibitions, talks, and conferences in articulation with the annual theme. Inspired by the logics of guerrilla, we want to challenge dogmatic presentational conventions, discover new territories for performative action, and expand the functional and semiotic crossings between public and private spaces.

IN THE HAND / Annual publication of a unique artistic object inspired by the dramaturgical problem that guides the year-long season.

IN THE WORKSHOP / Artistic and formative activities for both expert and non-expert audiences, from different ages and diverse socio-professional backgrounds. The workshop is live and online.

 

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JOANA MAGALHÃES (UMA co-founder)

She holds degrees in Psychology and Acting, and works as a creator, dramaturg, and actress in the performing arts. Joana is interested in theatre, video, and installation.

Her credits as creator include Noite de Estreia (Opening Night, 2016), O espetáculo mais contemporâneo do mundo (The world’s most contemporary show, 2017), There’s something about the air (2018), U (2019), Haiku (2019), and Haiku extended (2020).

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MAFALDA LENCASTRE (UMA co-founder)

She holds a BFA and MFA in Sound and Image (Porto and Barcelona), and has formal training in acting (ACT and ESTC, Lisbon). Mafalda also studied dramaturgy, movement, photography, and devising in Porto, Berlin, and Lisbon. She's currently doing her PhD in Artistic Studies at Coimbra University. She participated in École des Maîtres and created There's something about the air.

Mafalda began working as a performer in film and video but recently she has worked in theatre as an actress, assistant director, instructor, and creator. Some theatre highlights include the complicities with Nuno M. Cardoso, Balleteatro, Mickael de Oliveira, END festival, and the previous collaborations with Nuno Carinhas, Nuno Cardoso and Ricardo Pais.
 

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MARIA INÊS MARQUES (UMA co-founder)

Porto, 1990. She holds a BA in Languages and Literary Studies and an MFA in Dramaturgy from the Yale School of Drama, where she’s currently completing her doctorate. She’s been working as a production dramaturg and theatre translator since 2015.

More recently, she embarked on a journey into the world of theatre production. She served as dramaturg at the Yale Repertory Theatre, Trinity Rep, and collaborated with Mickael de Oliveira and Nuno M Cardoso. She co-directed The Meal, by Newton Moreno (2017). In 2019 she worked as artistic assistant for the END Festival - Encounter of New Dramaturgies.

CONTACT 

plataforma.uma@gmail.com

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