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2025 Edition
5th Edition | November 6–30, 2025
The performativity of friendship
The performativity of friendship
This year, we return in November, reversing the biennial cycle our audience has grown used to. We move from even to odd years, always connected to the world and to the possibilities of discussion through the arts. The fifth edition of the international festival and laboratory Linha de Fuga takes place between 6 and 30 November 2025 across several venues and theatres in Coimbra, and is dedicated to the theme “The Performativity of Friendship.” Further reaThroughout the month of November, Linha de Fuga presents a program of shows, performances, conversations, and workshops that propose “Facing Fears” as a way to achieve a more harmonious and just society. After a pandemic that confined us to our homes, with a real fear of death, society is now facing its hangover, in a constant suspension of the future and a global anxiety crisis, with real fears: social and economic precariousness, climate crises, wars, fascism...
We propose to look at friendship as an act of resistance and care, a practice that requires presence and continuity. We speak of the performativity of friendship because we believe, as the Catalan philosopher Marina Garcés argues, that it takes place in the doing, in being together, in vulnerability, in allowing exposure to the other and to improvisation. Friendship deals with uncertainties, fragilities and risk, but also reclaims the idea of community. It is not a currency of exchange but – to paraphrase bell hooks – a radical practice of care, together, with the other and their difference, in exchanges of fluids and ideas without hierarchies. Friendship is performative because it is made and remade every day, with every choice, through the conscious care and respect required.As philosopher Žižek argues, the fears instilled in society by powers that seek to control it can be confronted when we become aware of them and unite collectively, forming resistance. This edition's programming is inspired by the resilience of the artistic community in an increasingly disconnected world. Through the perspectives of national and international artists, some of whom are creating in Coimbra, we invite reflection and confrontation of these fears through works that reveal individual and social fragilities, but also hopes and the human potential to collectively resist and confront these fears.As philosopher Žižek argues, the fears instilled in society by powers that seek to control it can be confronted when we become aware of them and unite collectively, forming resistance. This edition's programming is inspired by the resilience of the artistic community in an increasingly disconnected world. Through the perspectives of national and international artists, some of whom are creating in Coimbra, we invite reflection and confrontation of these fears through works that reveal individual and social fragilities, but also hopes and the human potential to collectively resist and confront these fears.
We propose to look at friendship as an act of resistance and care, a practice that requires presence and continuity. We speak of the performativity of friendship because we believe, as the Catalan philosopher Marina Garcés argues, that it takes place in the doing, in being together, in vulnerability, in allowing exposure to the other and to improvisation. Friendship deals with uncertainties, fragilities and risk, but also reclaims the idea of community. It is not a currency of exchange but – to paraphrase bell hooks – a radical practice of care, together, with the other and their difference, in exchanges of fluids and ideas without hierarchies. Friendship is performative because it is made and remade every day, with every choice, through the conscious care and respect required.As philosopher Žižek argues, the fears instilled in society by powers that seek to control it can be confronted when we become aware of them and unite collectively, forming resistance. This edition's programming is inspired by the resilience of the artistic community in an increasingly disconnected world. Through the perspectives of national and international artists, some of whom are creating in Coimbra, we invite reflection and confrontation of these fears through works that reveal individual and social fragilities, but also hopes and the human potential to collectively resist and confront these fears.As philosopher Žižek argues, the fears instilled in society by powers that seek to control it can be confronted when we become aware of them and unite collectively, forming resistance. This edition's programming is inspired by the resilience of the artistic community in an increasingly disconnected world. Through the perspectives of national and international artists, some of whom are creating in Coimbra, we invite reflection and confrontation of these fears through works that reveal individual and social fragilities, but also hopes and the human potential to collectively resist and confront these fears.
We believe it is vital to reclaim this concept at a time when politicians worldwide abuse the word to legitimise wars, occupations and genocides. We therefore bring it forward with the awareness that we must act to resist the macro-political tendencies that distort and usurp beautiful ideas and rob us of the possibility of imagining a better world.
Linha de Fuga is a contemporary dance festival, but also a space for critical reflection on society. We strive to build spaces of community, of relationships with the territory where we are, between audiences, artists and partners. Many of the programmed performances also consider friendship essential to building spaces of resistance. Los 3 Cerditos (ESP) propose a piece envisioning the importance of friendship in an increasingly controlled world; Adriana Reyes (ESP) invites us to experience interspecies relations from a non-hierarchical perspective of friendship; Antonio Tagliarini (ITA) exposes failure because he knows he is among friends; Sónia Baptista (PT) confronts the patriarchal world in a drag king version made possible by her community of feminist friendships; Margarida Cabral (PT) stitches time together with her friend Francisco Correia. Even the more solitary works reflect on the importance of care and friendship: Joana Levi (BR/PT) explores the richness of migrations, while Jan Fedinger (DE/PT) leads us to imagine non-neoliberal landscapes of wealth. Marina Guzzo’s (BR) exhibition, with photographs by Carlota Lagido (PT), brings us the friendship created by an ephemeral community in 2024. Likewise, local curator Marinah Raposo proposes friendship through site-specific works reflecting on the city’s ecology.
This edition can be experienced through four intertwined paths: the festival, with dance and performance works and exhibitions; the laboratory, hosting a temporary community of eleven artists in creative residence; a programme of critical discourses, with conversations on friendship and reflection labs; and the workshops, which serve as points of encounter and community building between artists and audiences.
We too insist on performing friendship: in the relationships we nurture with our partners, artists and territory, in exposing our fragilities to the unforeseen, but above all, in imagining a better world through the weaving of these connections.
We wish you a wonderful festival and invite you to join us in performing friendship – and challenge you to bring your friendships along too!
Catarina Saraiva
curator Linha de Fuga
We wish you a wonderful festival and invite you to join us in performing friendship – and challenge you to bring your friendships along too!
Catarina Saraiva
curator Linha de Fuga
performance, sound, light, 2025
land[e]scapes 4. redistribution of wealth by nature [working title]
Jan Fedinger
11 Nov 2025
Teatro Académico de Gil Vicente (TAGV)
dança, 2025
La Foresta Trabocca
Antonio Tagliarini
13 Nov 2025
Convento São Francisco - Sala D. Afonso Henriques
publication, performance, 2025, festival
Launch of Coreia#13 + Santa of Autonomous Substrate
João dos Santos Martins
Inés Sybille Vooduness
26 Nov 2025
Casa da Cidadania da Língua
dance, performance, local creation, 2025
Amizades, Um Mundo Extra Muros
Adrián Montenegro
Jorge Cabrera
Malu Patury
Marinah Raposo
9 e 29 Nov 2025
Convento São Francisco, Baixa de Coimbra
performance, 2025
Coreografias Selváticas
Adriana Reyes
29 Nov 2025
Estufa Tropical do Jardim Botânico da Universidade de Coimbra
photography exposition in public space, 2025
Exhibition Mistura#8
Marina Guzzo
Carlota Lagido
13 de Set a 11 Mar 2026
Jardim Botânico da Universidade de Coimbra
artistic practices, archive, writing, 2025
LAWN - Live Art Writers Network x Linha de Fuga 2025
performingborders
6 a 30 de Nov 2025
Vários locais
conversation, 2025, critical discourse, encounter
Annual Meeting Periferias Centrais | Censorship in the Arts and in Society
Periferias Centrais
7 Nov 2025
Casa da Cidadania da Língua
Reflective Writing Workshop, 2025
Building Critical Responses: a Collaborative Session for Writers and Artists
performingborders
9 de Nov 2025
Casa da Cidadania da Língua
Laboratory of Plant Experimentation and Ingestion, 2025
Something we don’t know we know, but we do. From the jungle to the bush
Adriana Reyes
Marcos Moraes
15, 22*, 27 Nov 2025
Estufa Tropical do Jardim Botânico da Universidade de Coimbra
dance workshop, 2025
A look at the creative act, between rigour and freedom
Antonio Tagliarini
17 e 18 de Nov 2025
Convento São Francisco
music, artistic practices, archive, 2025, critical discourses, encounter
Listening Session of the album O HOMEM QUE GUARDAVA AS ÁGUAS
Susana Guardado
21 Nov 2025
Ponto de Encontro do festival
Archive Practices Workshop
The Body, Writing, and the Archive: Collaborative Laboratory
performingborders
28 Nov 2025
Casa da Cidadania da Língua
2024 Edition
Let's Talk About Fears
To Purge Them
To Purge Them
Throughout the month of November, Linha de Fuga presents a program of shows, performances, conversations, and workshops that propose “Facing Fears” as a way to achieve a more harmonious and just society. After a pandemic that confined us to our homes, with a real fear of death, society is now facing its hangover, in a constant suspension of the future and a global anxiety crisis, with real fears: social and economic precariousness, climate crises, wars, fascism...
As philosopher Žižek argues, the fears instilled in society by powers that seek to control it can be confronted when we become aware of them and unite collectively, forming resistance. This edition's programming is inspired by the resilience of the artistic community in an increasingly disconnected world. Through the perspectives of national and international artists, some of whom are creating in Coimbra, we invite reflection and confrontation of these fears through works that reveal individual and social fragilities, but also hopes and the human potential to collectively resist and confront these fears.As philosopher Žižek argues, the fears instilled in society by powers that seek to control it can be confronted when we become aware of them and unite collectively, forming resistance. This edition's programming is inspired by the resilience of the artistic community in an increasingly disconnected world. Through the perspectives of national and international artists, some of whom are creating in Coimbra, we invite reflection and confrontation of these fears through works that reveal individual and social fragilities, but also hopes and the human potential to collectively resist and confront these fears.
As philosopher Žižek argues, the fears instilled in society by powers that seek to control it can be confronted when we become aware of them and unite collectively, forming resistance. This edition's programming is inspired by the resilience of the artistic community in an increasingly disconnected world. Through the perspectives of national and international artists, some of whom are creating in Coimbra, we invite reflection and confrontation of these fears through works that reveal individual and social fragilities, but also hopes and the human potential to collectively resist and confront these fears.As philosopher Žižek argues, the fears instilled in society by powers that seek to control it can be confronted when we become aware of them and unite collectively, forming resistance. This edition's programming is inspired by the resilience of the artistic community in an increasingly disconnected world. Through the perspectives of national and international artists, some of whom are creating in Coimbra, we invite reflection and confrontation of these fears through works that reveal individual and social fragilities, but also hopes and the human potential to collectively resist and confront these fears.
Raquel André (PT) prompts us to think about where we come from and what our sense of belonging means, confronting us with the mercantile limitations of our DNA family. Marina Guzzo (BR) proposes an experience that explores possible choreographic relationships between people and plants, to collectively imagine a future based on ecofeminist values. Malicho Vaca (CL) takes us on a sensitive journey through his personal history, establishing a parallel between the loss of individual memory (of his grandmother) and the collective memory loss of a people. Paloma Calle (ES), in a comedic way, and Inês Campos (PT), in a poetic manner, face their personal fears and expose, respectively, the violence inflicted by society on all social and sexual deviations, the fragility of mental health, and the anxiety induced by the productive system. Francisco Thiago Cavalcanti (BR/PT) closes the festival by demonstrating how to resist collectively to escape a world that seeks to keep us within unimaginative limits.Two dance artists propose installations within the “What We Step On” project of Apneia Colectiva: Elizabete Francisca (PT) exhibits a photographic work on ancestries, while Julia Salem (BR/PT) presents a sound installation that aims to make us reflect on the paths we take. Three local artists showcase new creations through a series of small site-specific works by Malu Patury with Thales Luz, Jorgette Dumby, and Keissy Carvelli, providing further insights on the theme of this edition.The festival also hosts a series of discussions on the theme “What Are We Afraid Of?” curated by the Masculinities Observatory of CES/UC and Catarina Silva, featuring various guests from different fields of knowledge.
Raquel André (PT) põe-nos a pensar de onde vimos e o que significa o nosso lugar de pertença, confrontando-nos com as limitações mercantilistas da nossa família de ADN, Marina Guzzo (BR) propõe uma experiência que explora possíveis relações coreográficas entre pessoas e plantas, para imaginar coletivamente um futuro baseado em valores ecofeministas. Malicho Vaca (CL) leva-nos por uma viagem sensível sobre a sua história pessoal, estabelecendo um paralelismo entre a perda de memória individual (de sua avó) e a perda de memória coletiva de um povo. Paloma Calle (ES), de uma forma cómica e Inês Campos (PT), de uma forma poética, enfrentam os seus medos pessoais e expõem diante de desconhecidos respetivamente a violência incutida pela sociedade sobre todos os desvios sociais e sexuais, sobre a fragilidade da saúde mental e a ansiedade a que o sistema produtivo nos induz e Francisco Thiago Cavalcanti (BR/PT) fecha o festival demonstrando como resistir para escapar em coletivo a um mundo que nos quer dentro de limites sem imaginação. Duas artistas da dança propõem instalações dentro do projeto “O que Pisamos” da Apneia Colectiva, Elizabete Francisca (PT) expõe um trabalho fotográfico sobre as ancestralidades e Julia Salem (BR/PT) apresenta uma instalação sonora que pretende levar-nos a pensar os percursos e caminhos que fazemos; três artistas locais apresentam novas criações, num percurso de pequenas obras site-specific de Malu Patury com Thales Luz, Jorgette Dumby e Keissy Carvelli que nos expõem ainda outras visões sobre o tema desta edição.
In parallel with the festival, an international artistic creation laboratory is taking place. Thirteen artists from various backgrounds and countries will be in residence in Coimbra for three weeks to work, provoke, think, and develop their artistic practices, bringing individual projects that aim to create a dialogue with the city and its audiences on how they confront individual and social fears.
We are happy to present another edition of a festival that exists thanks to all the partnerships we have gathered and the desire to generate encounters between artists, spectators, and organizations. We hope that together we can face and overcome all our fears and consider the good examples of collective resistance, in a year when we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Democracy in Portugal.
photography, performance, magic, witchcraft, ancestry, sound, artist Residencies Contra|o|Tempo
My Totems
8 Nov a 21 de Dez
Casa das Artes Bissaya Barreto
installation, wandering, sound, artist Residencies Contra|o|Tempo
Re-registering on the ground
8 de Novembro a 21 de Dezembro
Casa das Artes Bissaya Barreto
Experience, Community, Ecofeminism, Social Choreography, Inter-Species Relations, Performance
Mistura | Immersive Workshop and Performative Journey
6 a 10 Nov 2024
Jardim Botânico da Universidade de Coimbra
Dance, Collective, Madness, Resistance, Politics, Affection
Também se matam cavalos
29 Nov 2024
Convento São Francisco - Sala D. Afonso Henriques (Antiga Igreja)
performance, 2024
WHISPER WAX SHADOW - a reading of veiled predictions
21 Dez 2024
Casa das Artes Bissaya Barreto
2022 Edition
In the third edition of Linha de Fuga, we are once again generating a dynamic meeting space for artists from different backgrounds. We are following the same dynamic of thinking about the arts of the body as producers of knowledge, after an edition dedicated to thinking about the meaning of Democracy and the arts as the ground where encounters between citizens can be generated.
In a moment of extreme instability like the one we are living in, it becomes logical to evolve this next edition into a discussion about the ethics of care.
After a year in which the most heard words were Covid-19 and pandemic, at a time when several wars worry the world, on the verge of irreversible ecological collapse, in addition to the fatigue of the fast times demanded by the need to produce in order to be visible, we wanted to put this theme on the table, in order to draw attention to the situations of vulnerability that exist in the world and the inequalities they cause in inter-social relationships.
After a year in which the most heard words were Covid-19 and pandemic, at a time when several wars worry the world, on the verge of irreversible ecological collapse, in addition to the fatigue of the fast times demanded by the need to produce in order to be visible, we wanted to put this theme on the table, in order to draw attention to the situations of vulnerability that exist in the world and the inequalities they cause in inter-social relationships.
To think that, as the philosopher João Maria André says, “vulnerability affects the human being as a whole, as much in its physical and corporeal dimension, as in its psychic and spiritual dimension. In pain and in the passions there is not the body on one side and the spirit on the other, but body and spirit are one and the same, and that is why one also loves with the body and also suffers with thought, indicating the existence in us of a patic reason, more than a pure reason, in which thought and affectivity intersect in the body we are and with which we tell ourselves in the vicissitudes of our identity”.
That way, we want to discuss care in a plural and holistic way, focusing on the interdependencies that exist among all of us and thus promoting curiosity for practices that allow us to relate to distinct logics of existence.
This edition's program is designed with that same sense of care, highlighting the need to recognize, cultivate and sustain a space of coexistence where different worlds (vegetable, animal, dreamlike, spiritual, human, etc.) can manifest themselves on their own terms, without harming each other.
The selection of the artists and their works was made according to their ability to provide critical discourse and bring different perspectives to the city on that theme.T
his whole dynamic will take place between September 16 and October 9, 2022, with a program of two plays a week in different places and locations in the city, in addition to several critical activities related to them.We begin the festival with what currently seems to be a common condition among everyone, fatigue.
This edition's program is designed with that same sense of care, highlighting the need to recognize, cultivate and sustain a space of coexistence where different worlds (vegetable, animal, dreamlike, spiritual, human, etc.) can manifest themselves on their own terms, without harming each other.
The selection of the artists and their works was made according to their ability to provide critical discourse and bring different perspectives to the city on that theme.T
his whole dynamic will take place between September 16 and October 9, 2022, with a program of two plays a week in different places and locations in the city, in addition to several critical activities related to them.We begin the festival with what currently seems to be a common condition among everyone, fatigue.
Vicente Arlandis proposes a satire on this theme, while making us watch as he delights in a massage that only he is entitled to; Cristian Duarte brings us the need for the Other, but also our lack of trust in the Other, basing himself on the myth of Orpheus; Dinis Machado awakens us to other bodies, other sexualities, other possibilities of thinking about (non)binarism, in a clear allusion to the scandal of Nijinski's sexuality on stage; Chrysa Parkinson gives us the gift of her listening skills, highlighting language as a means of crossing confrontations; Marta Blanco rewards us with love and political postures for her vision of the first edition of Linha de Fuga; Carlota Lagido proposes a feminist dinner in Alfafar, provoking a contact between the audience and different women, present and absent in history and in life; Gustavo Ciríaco and Andrea Sonnberger carefully transport us through a collective walk through the city, allowing us to see and hear what we were never careful to observe; and we end the festival with two odes to dance, with David Marques, who invites us to access his intimacy and the pleasure of dancing, and Frédéric Gies, who invites us to accompany him on a contagious journey where party, ecstasy, and memory, challenge us to lose ourselves, or find ourselves, in the mass.
Possible ways of thinking about care, with care.
Alongside this program, several other activities will be available: conversations, seminars, presentations of ongoing projects, workshops, participation in ongoing projects, and artistic researches. Everything is to be looked at with the attention and care that we all need.
Catarina Saraiva and Thiago Granato
Curatorship of 2022’s Edition
Alongside this program, several other activities will be available: conversations, seminars, presentations of ongoing projects, workshops, participation in ongoing projects, and artistic researches. Everything is to be looked at with the attention and care that we all need.
Catarina Saraiva and Thiago Granato
Curatorship of 2022’s Edition
Documentary
Linha de Fuga – film essay
24 Set 2022
Auditório do Instituto Português do Desporto e da Juventude (IPDJ)
Palestra Performativa
Dis/orienting Front
24 Set 2022
Auditório do Instituto Português do Desporto e da Juventude (IPDJ)
writting, art criticism
Crítica de Fuga Júnior
12 Set a 16 Out 2022
Instituto Português do Desporto e da Juventude (IPDJ)
2020 Edition
Show, Performance, Theater, Music, Spain, Italy
Fiestas Invisibles
27 set 2020
Pátio do Centro de Artes Visuais (CAV)
2018 Edition
Line-up available here.