Entre nó(s)
Entre nó(s)
Theatre and performance · creation · 2026–2027
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ENTRE NÓ(S) is a long-term artistic creation and research project centred on migration experiences in Lisbon. Its title plays on the Portuguese expression entre nós, meaning “among us” or “between us”, while nós can also mean “knots”, suggesting relationships that are formed, tightened, complicated and undone.
The project brings together four performative actions developed between 2025 and 2027, involving more than 370 people with experiences of territorial displacement. Through encounters, recorded conversations, collective gestures and actions in public space, the process explores belonging, democratic participation and social interdependence.
Rather than treating migrants as subjects to be represented, ENTRE NÓ(S) creates situations in which participants become active agents in the artistic process. The material produced through these encounters feeds into a polyphonic theatre text, bringing performance, sound, audiovisual documentation and dramaturgical writing into dialogue.
ABOUT THE PROCESS
The process of ENTRE NÓ(S) unfolds as a long-term investigation. RE.PA.RAR and RE.CLA.MAR generated encounters, conversations, voices, images and other records that constitute the first layers of this trajectory. Building on these experiences, SUS.TEN.TAR and DES.CUL.PAR / CU.RAR create new frameworks for participation and encounter, expanding the research into migration, interdependence, belonging and possibilities for reconciliation.
Rather than beginning with a previously defined dramaturgy, the project creates situations in which participants’ experiences generate the materials that will later be revisited through theatrical writing. The four performances relate to one another as stages of the same research trajectory, with each action adding new experiences, words, gestures and questions to the process.
The materials produced throughout this trajectory will be revisited in writing laboratories and transformed into an original theatre text. The process culminates in work-in-progress readings, in which this dramaturgical material can be shared with audiences as part of the creative process itself.
PERFORMATIVE TRAJECTORY
RE.PA.RAR
The title breaks apart the Portuguese verb reparar, which can mean to repair, make amends, notice or pay attention.
The performance draws on the different meanings of the word reparar and creates situations of listening with the public. Presented in the context of the exhibition complexo brasil, it invited visitors to talk about what, in their personal experiences, relationships or in the world they inhabit, they considered in need of repair. With their consent, the conversations were recorded in audio and became material for a sound piece.
22 and 29 November 2025 · 10 and 17 January 2026
Lower Gallery, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Lisbon, Portugal
RE.CLA.MAR
The title breaks apart the Portuguese verb reclamar, which can mean to complain, protest or claim.
The performance created a temporary platform where people displaced from their territories were invited to voice their complaints freely. The action emerged from the tension between the right to complain and the vulnerability that migrants may experience when questioning the country in which they live, producing an archive of voices, images, gestures, hesitations and silences.
26 January 2026
UM, Instituto do Paradoxo Aplicado / FICA Imigrante
Lisbon, Portugal
NEW ACTIONS (2026 - 2027)
SUS.TEN.TAR
The title breaks apart the Portuguese verb sustentar, which can mean to sustain, support or hold up.
It is a collective action in public space developed with migrant artists. The performance begins with preparatory encounters in which the scenic materials and physical action are defined collectively, making the creative process itself a space for listening and shared construction.
The planned materials include T-shirts bearing the word “imigrante” (“migrant”) and blocks engraved with words naming contributions made by migrant communities to Portuguese society. These elements make visible the relationship between migration, presence and participation in the construction of the society in which one lives.
DES.CUL.PAR / CU.RAR
The title brings together two Portuguese verbs, desculpar (“to forgive”) and curar (“to heal”), breaking them apart and placing them in relation.
It is a participatory action developed with members of migrant communities, with no previous experience in the arts required. The performance is constructed through a series of encounters in which “terms of forgiveness” are collectively developed and later used both as scenic material and as a record of the action.
By shifting the act of forgiveness into a collective construction in public space, the action opens an investigation into what can be named, worked through and shared among people shaped by experiences of migration. The framework remains open to the words and experiences produced by the participants themselves.
ARTISTIC CREDITS
Concept
Lucas França
Artistic direction
Lucas França
Dramaturgy
Lucas França
Performance
Peter Arcanjo, Nylon Princeso, Rute Rocha Ferreira, Clara Bevilaqua, Vanessa Amaral, Paola Vasconcelos, David J. Amado, Andreia Galvão and Gabriela Hedegaard
Creative support and outside eye
Tales Frei
Dramaturgical guidance
Diogo Liberano
SUPPORTED BY
Direção-Geral das Artes
UM – Instituto do Paradoxo Aplicado
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