The show “Strade Poetiche, Poetic Roads”, by Italy’s Rusty Brass Band, surprised the public in the streets and squares of the historic centre during Imaginarius – International Street Theatre Festival. The international jury was also won over by the quality of the musicians and their performance, choosing them as winners of the Mais Imaginarius competition.
The Rusty Brass Band wins a passport for an artistic residency in Santa Maria da Feira to create a new show to be part of the main programme of the next edition of the festival, in 2024. The City Council awards the Italian band a grant to support artistic creation, worth 5000 euros, and a travel support grant of 700 euros.
The public also voted, and elected the dance show Metamorfose, an artistic creation by the Brazilian dancer and director Gustavo Silvestre, thus distinguished with an Honourable Mention.
The jury for this edition was made up of Aleksandar Caric, artistic director of Festival Uličnih Svirača, an international street music festival in Novi Sad, Serbia; Antonia Kusmanic, co-director of the Room 100 collective and artistic director and executive producer of the Peculiar Families Festival, in Split, Croatia; Danielle Corbishley, creative producer, director and performer at 101 Outdoor Arts – National Centre for Arts in Public Space, Newbury, UK; Jens Frieman, director of Helsingor Teater and artistic director of Passagefestival, Helsingor, Denmark, and SO-Festival, UK; and José Prata, professor at ESMAE, Portugal.
Competing in this edition of Mais Imaginarius were 16 artistic projects:
» A Body and Other Objects, by Ana Jordão (PT/DE);
» All Strings Attached, by Anna Krazy (EE);
» Bien Joué, by Fermin Morá (AR);
» Tentación Divina, Maiclown Company (AR);
» Input – Seu Corpo, Seu Clic, Alex Lima (BR/PT);
» Do Nada, Sophia Polyakova (PT);
» Lighthouse – Light Art Installation Fierce-Art (PT);
» Metamorfose, Gustavo Silvestre (BR);
» Parranda, Manshula Circo (AR);
» Round a Round, Franxi Natra Clwona (DE);
» Sin Creacion, La Popi (AR/DE);
» Smile, Rita Spider (PT);
» Strade Poetiche, Poetic Roads, Rusty Brass Band (IT);
» Talchè, Cie Davide Fontana (FR);
» Totemtango, Teatro Bislacco (IT);
» Vecinos, Vuelta Y Media (ES)
Mais Imaginarius is a section of the Imaginarius festival that gives space to emerging Portuguese and international artists willing to show their contemporary, multidisciplinary and innovative artistic projects in public space, competing with each other.
