November 7–9, 2024
Commissioned by the European Cultural Foundation and produced by espaço agora now and partners, this year’s edition of The European Pavilion culminates in Lisbon from November 7 to 9. Under the evocative title Liquid Becomings, this edition is a radical artistic experiment and exploration of Europe through its rivers—inviting reflection on belonging and the potential for collective futures.
By November, four artistic crews will have sailed sustainable boats along the Vistula, Danube, Rhine, and Tagus, tracing 1,394 km across 11 countries. Throughout the journey, artists immersed themselves in landscapes, histories, and communities along the rivers, seeking new forms of coexistence and gathering notes, drawings, images, objects, materials, sounds, rituals. These journeys now converge in Lisbon for an interdisciplinary three-day festival.
The festival opens at Doca do Poço do Bispo, where the boat sailing down the Tagus will dock. The celebration is led by the Cape Verdean women’s musical group Batucadeiras das Olaias, symbolizing the convergence of cultures along Europe’s rivers.
Newly commissioned works by Portuguese artists will be presented, including a polyphonic composition by Valete co-created with local students reflecting on what it means to belong in Europe; and a speculative fiction by acclaimed author Gonçalo M. Tavares. Theatremaker Paula Diogo will also present her performative audio walk Terra Nullius every day at sunrise and sunset.
On the final day, philosopher Báyò Akómoláfé and anthropologist Elizabeth Povinelli will engage in a discussion on strategies for coping with civilizational challenges, exploring tools for joyful survival and togetherness.
Throughout the festival, Quinta Alegre, a social-cultural center in the old parish of Santa Clara, transforms into a dynamic space showcasing collective and personal narratives, notes, and interpretations from the river journeys.
While the rivers have acted as living laboratories for the artists, the festival in Lisbon becomes a vibrant space for public encounters—where we reflect on how we can learn to coexist in the present. The European Pavilion 2024: Liquid Becomings invites us to envision a future shaped by shared experiences, emphasising that to navigate complexities, we must cultivate ways of togetherness that celebrate our diversity and foster solidarity.
For the full program, visit liquidbecomings.eu
Liquid Becomings is produced by the collective of independent artists Agora Now in partnership with Teatro Meia Volta (Portugal), FLOW (Poland), MS-Fusion (Austria), and United Artist Labour (Serbia). It is curated by Bojan Đorđev, Laura Kalauz, Maria Magdalena Kozłowska, Siniša Ilić, Alfredo Martins, Annette Mees, Naomi Russell, and Olga Uzikaeva, with Agnieszka Brzeżańska and Ewa Ciepielewska.
With
Batucadeiras das Olaias, Báyò Akómoláfé, Marija Balubdžić, Flavia Barbosa Pinheiro, Lil Bukkake, Leila Chakroun, Colectivo Gira, Niel de Vries, Ecko deck, Didi, Paula Diogo, Bogdan Djukanović, Keli Freitas, Gosia Kępa, Neda Kovinić, Romuald Krężel, Małgorzata Kuciewicz, Tita Maravilha, Malgorzata Markiewicz, Marta Niedbał, Élodie Olson-Coons, Katarina Popović, Elizabeth Povinelli, Hanna Priemetzhofer, Ritó (Rita Natálio), Elina Rodríguez, Martin Schick, Pio Sebastian Torroja, Jaka Škapin, Isabel Soany, Mette Sterre, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Sophie Thun, Carola Uehlken, Valete, Viktor Vejvoda, Nicolle Velcro, Alicja Wysocka, Patryk Zakrocki, and students from Escola EB23 Pintor Almada Negreiros.
Launched by the European Cultural Foundation in 2021, The European Pavilion offers a unique opportunity to envision Europe through artistic projects and imagine what it can or should become. The Pavilion stems from the conviction that we need more cultural spaces that transcend national borders. The inaugural edition took place in Rome in 2022, gathering over 60 artists, scholars, and activists. Following a call for curatorial proposals, Liquid Becomings was selected by an independent jury as the second edition of The European Pavilion.
Agora Now is an international artist-led movement that reimagines artistic development and public experiment in the performing arts – exploring alternative ways of creating, working and exchanging; catalysts for a global network of hubs and spaces that inspire fresh connections between performing artists, local citizens and public action. The first city hubs are found in Rotterdam and Buenos Aires with Lisbon in the planning stages.
