The Governments of Portugal and Spain signed this Wednesday, in Lanzarote, a memorandum of intent for the implementation of a cross-cultural cooperation program within the framework of 50 years of democracies in the two Iberian countries.
This cooperation protocol will be signed at the end of the 34th Luso-Spanish Summit, in the presence of the Presidents of the Government of Portugal, António Costa, and Spain, Pedro Sánchez, and the series of events promoted by both countries will continue between September 2024 and September 2025, covering music, performing arts, literature, visual arts and multidisciplinary activities.
In statements to the Lusa news agency, the Minister of Culture highlighted that “both Portugal and Spain were countries that had a great responsibility in inaugurating a new wave of transitions to democracy in the 1970s.”
“And these transitions to democracy are themselves the result of profound transformations in the societies of both countries, expressed from the point of view of artistic creation and cultural dynamics. What we are going to do is sign a protocol of intent so that there is a cultural cooperation crusade between Portugal and Spain within the framework of 50 years of democracy in both countries,” said Pedro Adão e Silva.
For the head of the Culture portfolio, democracy “is at the same time a consequence of cultural transformations in Portuguese and Spanish societies, but it is also a factor of transformation and democratization, both in terms of access and cultural creation.”
“And it is around this idea, this concept that between September 2024 and September 2025, organizations and entities from both countries will promote an intercultural program,” he added.
If the cross-country season between Portugal and France, throughout 2022, had Lisbon and Paris as its main axes, the cross-cultural program between Portugal and Spain should this time cover various points in the national territories and in Spain.
“Precisely one of the consequences of democratization, both in Spain and in Portugal, is the concern for the territory, and the social relationship between the two countries is even more significant,” he pointed out.
According to Pedro Adão e Silva, after the signing of the Portuguese-Spanish protocol, from there the idea is to start designing a set of initiatives that will be carried out in Portugal and Spain “linking the 50 years of the Iberian democracies, which began a new wave of democratization in Europe but not only, and to do it from a look and perspective of culture”.
“Democracy and the transition to democracy not only represented a political and institutional transformation. It was a transformation with an economic, social and cultural impact on the societies of both countries. And the dynamism and diversity of artistic creation and culture today in both countries are a product – a particularly successful product of the transitions to democracy”, reinforced the head of the Culture portfolio.
Faced with one of the theses of the essayist Eduardo Lourenço that Portugal, in the cultural field, over the centuries, to differentiate itself from the neighboring country, skipped Spain to connect directly with the French cultural model, the Minister of Culture He maintained that the validity of democracy in Portugal “is not the only explanatory factor of this change” in the national reality.
“We have a consolidated identity from a cultural point of view. Precisely because we have that consolidated cultural identity, we only gain by not making that leap and, on the contrary, deepening relations and cultural dialogue with Spain. There is no fear from the point of view of affirming our identity, “he defended.
With the strengthening of cultural ties with Spain, “we win with dialogue, and we win with openness, with knowledge, which in the end always corresponds to a double movement.” “They are opportunities to show what is done in Portugal, but also for those who are artistic creators in Portugal to expose themselves and get to know what is done in other countries, specifically in Spain”, he added.
Source: TSF
