Categoria: educação patrimonial
The Game and the Museums

Gameling and Museums
Saturday, November 13: Family Games Afternoon –
15:00 – 18:00 Anagrama – Av. Berlin 35 C Lisbon
Education and Diversity Museum
For a few years, when I had the time and availability to observe what the museums in Lisbon were producing that were relevant, I visited an exhibition organized by the Sports Museum, curated by its Director Pedro Cardoso Pereira, where he proposed an exhibition based on this approach. of the “GAME in Sport”
It was then an experimental narrative, on a topic that, as we all know, is of great social relevance. The game is present in the daily lives of all ages, from the youngest to the oldest, from schools to leisure, exalted as a virtue or punished as a vice.
As we all know, in our decaying museums, which are serious institutions, play is absent, and therefore museums are not places to play. But, let us imagine thinking of the Museum as a game space. Like a canvas where, for a defined time, and in a certain space, a story is created: A place where a special activity is practiced.
The game is a representation of social life limited in space and time. It is processed according to previously defined rules. It has real and imaginary norms. Cheating is not allowed, nor is it allowed to change the rules halfway through.
The Game is a representation of Freedom!
Does a reflection on the place of the Game in Museums make sense?
I have stayed with the subject under my eye and have been working on the issue. But as with everything, nothing better than practicing:
“The limitation in space is even more blatant than the limitation in time. Every game is processed and exists within a previously delimited field, in a material or imaginary, deliberate or spontaneous way. Just as there is no formal difference between the game and the cult, so the ‘sacred place’ cannot be formally distinguished from the game’s terrain. The arena, the game table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage, the screen, the tennis court, the court, etc., all have the form and function of playing grounds, that is, forbidden, isolated places. , closed, sacred, within which certain rules are respected. All of them are temporary worlds within the habitual world, dedicated to the practice of a special activity (Jhoan Huizing, Homo Ludens, 2014, p. 13).

One of the symptoms of the decline of Portuguese museums is the atrocious impossibility of them to manifest the Laughter.
When we enter a museum, the smiles we see in its visitors are rare. There is no room for laughter. The objects embodied in his plinths do not elicit any laughter. When we leave museums we do not feel any happiness, although “surveys to the satisfaction of visitors” are one of the current tools of what can be called “cultural marketing”, they never ask if we are happy. It is true that they ask, on a scale of 1 to 5 if we like, if we will return, if we recommend a friend. But happiness is an absence. Never ask if we laugh, if we are happy, though happiness is a criterion of satisfaction.
So little, in the current search of the ICOM community, for a new museum concept (https://icofom.mini.icom.museum/zoom-meeting-with-co-chairs-of-icom-define/), we checked the mobilization of the search for the dimension of happiness and laughter in the museum. We can then verify a correspondence between this absence of nouns or adjectives directly related to the generative tree of laughter (and happiness) and the practices of so-called museology (traditional or objects).
What I am trying to show, in my thesis, is whether in museums we could be happier, or stay happier, we would be closer to a comprehensive museum. A museum that achieves a design of relevance to society, in addition to the great collection of objects of hegemonic memories. And there are several examples of such experiences.
In Jean Luc-Godard’s film “Band à Part” (1964) the protagonists Anna Karina, Samy Frey and Claude Brasseur try to break the record for the fastest visit to the Louvre. (https://youtu.be/J9i771qYngY). This experience, which is a practice of happiness and well-being, warned, in the protesters of the sixties of the last century, about the need to open museums to the world. “Let the Seine cross the Louvre,” wrote the sixty-eight rebels on the walls of the Museum. It was then a sign of change, which Santiago sought to interpret.
It’s been a few years, in a meeting I had at the Museu dos Coches in Lisbon where I did some reflections on the proposals for work in museology and launched some challenges to museums in Portugal: With the title “a museology that is useless for life is useless”, As is customary in our land, these kinds of ideas are the target of the piece of “gerontocracy” illuminated and forgotten in the garbage cans of seminaries built for statistical purposes and career management.
The structural idea of his work was based on a reading (or search) of the need to adapt museological processes to the times of the city. This is because, at the time, I had the perception that Museums, as places where processes of patrimonial memory took shape, were, as they still remain, increasingly out of step with the rhythms and senses of the world. Museums, in Portugal, are more and more places of other times with narratives where analogue monovision emerges as more and more frightening forms in its fake production configuration.
For those who have the patience to observe that in museums there are no laughs or even a few smiles, this is visible to the naked eye. These post-pandemic times are an example of this. As we witness in the city the enormous happiness of this reunion with life and with others, now that the Pandemic is under control, museums continue with “their usual business” of selling cultural programs of yesteryear, stereos and without feeling the pulsation of life.
Despite everything, there are proposals from social museology to enhance laughter. To work with happiness. The proposals of Pierre Mayrand, in this country of ours, and a few years ago I spoke of it, are an example of this, although as usual things have gone unnoticed in these museologies which, for fashion reasons, claim to be critical. The debate is even denser than it may seem at first glance, rooted in Renaissance debates, as we will speak elsewhere.
But let’s go to the absence of the laugh in the city’s museums.
Returning from an experience in Barcelona, I was amazed to see that the city was full of young people laughing in the streets. Some of them gathered in the museums of the “Barrio Chinó/La Raval”, occupied bookshops, played outdoors and extolled what made them happy: -Live life! It was an experience of happiness “walking the streets remembering Francisco Ferrer, the educator shot after the tumult of the tragic week of 1909.
In our capital Lisbon, I faced the city without laughter, anxious, without youth. Closed bookstores, no people. Cultural centres and lifeless libraries. It is true that the population has aged. It is true that young people in the country have an appetite for riparian areas where access to beers is easy and uncontrolled. It is true that the schools have resumed, and as such the necessary occupation the daily. But still, what justifies the absence of laughter in the city’s proposals? And in their museums?
There are some hypotheses that are worth thinking of as a critical exercise. One of them is the “aging” of museums. All social organizations have a life cycle. A youth, irreverent and creative; a maturity when its services extend to society, and a definition, when its services cease to adjust to the rhythms and needs of the city.
Social organizations, as living bodies, are subject to the laws of nature and need to show their social relevance. IF they do not show their value to society, they cease to be relevant. They define and society stops counting on them. They are replaced by other forms of organization.
It is true that there is always the possibility of adaptation and regeneration of social organizations. If museums are aging they may eventually reinvent themselves, recreate themselves. They will be able to take on new forms and new qualities, as intended by this new conceptual search.
This is clear, if this question, of its social value, is a problem, as I actually think it is, although many still do not understand it.
To simplify, we can think that this symptom of lack of adaptation, this kind of social Darwinism, applied to the analysis of the functions of museums, is nothing more than the entropy that general theory of systems shows us. Any system is permanently in the process of producing synergies and entropies. Will that theory work for museums?
If so, a museum, or museums in Portugal, as social organizations, observed from the general theory of systems, as a set of interconnected units that perform a set of functions relevant to society, in what situation are they?
If we try to observe the way they relate to society, we can observe their haemostasis and their entropies. The key to understanding the balance of the system is haemostasis. But when systems are analysed, their entropies are essentially sought. This is the force that competes for its deterioration.
And here we are led to the realization, which stems from the post-pandemic observation, that the impossibility and absence of laughter in Portuguese museums is a sign of its entropy. Of its aging. From its decay as I have already glazed here. One solution to the problem would be to let The Laughter get in to Portuguese museums. If you knew how to do it…

The signs of the decadence of museums in Portugal have been increasing sharply over the years of the Pandemic. The case of the Museu do Traje de São Brás is a paradigmatic example.
There have been some references to the case in the regional press, with little emphasis on national channels, with particular relevance to the silence of organizations representing museums and their professionals.
APOM, through the voice of its president João Neto, has sought to intervene constructively (https://www.sulinformacao.pt/2021/08/museu-do-traje-de-sao-bras-pode-tentar-reconciliacao-atraves- de-exposure-on-mercy/) to overcome conflicts.
The warning signal dates back to June, with the attentive José D’ Encarnação giving the cry “Save the Museum” (https://notascomentarios.blogspot.com/2021/07/vamos-salvar-o-museu.html?fbclid =IwAR2IGylM0A5kVJ7XleBiqFFJ8BwR3DC8KTugmK8MkIBxqbkhJeUi3QzlYbI), accompanied days later by the ever-attentive Dália Paulo (https://www.sulinformacao.pt/2021/08/museu-do-traje-de-o-patrio-sao-human-saobras) -cultural-to-safeguard/)
On the part of ICOM nothing emerged. One might think that the fairs would divert attention. Despite the relevance of the dispute about the free admission of museum professionals in temporary exhibitions of public facilities (https://icom-portugal.org/noticias/), yet another sign of decadence, the case of São Brás seems to be absent from the schedule. A sign of his rampant elitism.
Even more shocking will be the absence of a public position from MINOM Portugal. Emanuel Sancho was president of this ICOM Affiliate Structure, except for three mandates (between 2008-2018), with the Museum of São Brás having hosted relevant initiatives of Social Museology, some of which with international references. The absence of a public position is symptomatic of its decay after the Algarve decade.
But what counts in these cases are the hugs of solidarity that Emanuel Sancho deserves, and the support that his museum will be able to gather in this difficult phase, in the face of demonstrating its relevance in São Brás and for Portuguese museums. (Why being a network shouldn’t everyone be in solidarity when a unit is affected?)
The question, as I understand it, can be summed up in a few words. The Costume Museum of São Brás is supervised by the Santa Casa da Misericórdia. It was the solution found in the early nineties of the last century, when local forces, animated by the dynamics of the local development of Barrocal and Serra do Caldeirão, anchored in a network of local cultural animators, proposed the creation of a “cultural center” in the space of the old mansion inherited by the institution. It was configured in the form of a museum, in a proposal to renew the institutional figure, welcoming community initiatives, serving the community through the work on its memory, and through its work it gained an international dimension. It is this relevant role that the new merciful table legitimately challenges, and that it tries to domesticate for purposes that do not escape readings about the repositioning of local actors, already with more complex objectives. Sifting, the signal that is perceived is once again the voice of the owner taming the local initiative
The externalities of museums are always difficult to account for for grocers and wild ducks, more interested in building tall and insisting on solutions from the past. They are short term views. We have witnessed for decades the transformation of the landscape, social and natural, that has renewed this region. Dynamics of transformation are present that this museum seeks to take advantage of, asking it now to become a docile and obedient museum of the past. If this museum does not understand the opportunities to face social challenges, it will be like so many other dead, lifeless places, fed by people from the past and occasional curators.
That is why I speak of the decay of Portuguese museums, which remain incapable of demonstrating their relevance in society.
Antero de Quental, back in 1871, lectured on the “Causes of the Decay of Peninsular Peoples”. There were, according to his positive thinking, and if memory serves me correctly, three causes: religious, political and economic. Religious, because inquisitorial thinking had clouded Renaissance creativity; Political, because centralism had annihilated the dynamics of the councils; and economic, because the atavism of the slave trade (from the prey of the Discoveries) had crippled the creative force of the creative cities.
By evoking the poet Antero at the end of a hundred and fifty years, we have to give some context to this generation of seventy who tried, without great success, to renew the cultural life of the nation. Positive thinking, the search for causes with a deterministic process of evaluating its consequences, was dominant in time. Also the theme of Decadence was fashionable. In Literature and History: Fed by a late romanticism aside; and Arnold Tonybee’s March to Progress (civilization) readings. Herculano and Martins undertook to give them relevance.
But let’s go to the signs. From my point of view all the signs are there. The new religion, evoking sustainability, evokes money that does not enter the museum’s cash register, hindering its autonomy, centralizing decision-making and condemning the museum to a vegetative, lethargic state. Unless, of course, it bows to the predatory logics of tourism and the circumstantial power of this time and the agendas of its actors.
Signs in a country that is indignant at the fragmentation of its heritage objects and remains unable to face the great transition that complexity in the world shows us in these times of anger.
PS: Nor will it be surprising the silences of the universities that cultivate critical studies of heritage. There will also be signs…

Projeto a Dança Portuguesa a Gostar de si mesma
This an interesting project. In the videos I analyzed there are some common features. They are recorded outdoors, always in a rural or heritage space. Almost all of the participants are of some age and seem to act in a specific way for the recording. They can act in pairs, individually or in a group of more than five participants. They can act through movement (dance) accompanied with music, whether choir or singing. Generally speaking, this type of collection, made specifically for the recording, loses all the activity that precedes the performative moment and what happens to it. It is also not clear how the dance is performed in a community context. However, due to the testimony value, it represents a high patrimonial value.
After observing the three videos, it is verified that the observation of movement quality is possible with quality. However, given the circumstance of the performative act, she is not very exuberant and explores the body in a limited way. Perhaps because of the age of the dancers and the filming context, the movements are very simple and contained. The body’s potential is little explored. There is also no scope for great innovation and creativity. Since it is a rural heritage, the movements seem to have been crystallized. It is possible to observe in some of the movement links to traditional European dances, which in the late 19th and early 20th centuries favored traditional Portuguese dances, such as polka and mazurka. Mostly, it is clear that they were circle dances or cirandas, which were adopted. It is also curious to realize that these dances were originally urban, having been later installed and adapted in rural environments in hybrid forms. In some cases, it is possible to observe an adaptation in the dances presented with work songs.
There are some works in this area that could be mobilized to enrich this site.
A Dança Portuguesa a Gostar dela Própria (Liking Portuguese dance for its own sake) is a research project, creating a video register and promoting all the different dance styles from the whole country.
A Dança Portuguesa a Gostar Dela Própria collects traditional Portuguese dances danced by folklore groups and other kinds of dance groups, who are the protagonists in the preservation of traditional choreographies. However, this project also includes traditional dances of other origin which are currently danced in our country, as well as urban and contemporary dances.
A Dança Portuguesa a Gostar Dela Própria aims at preserving traditional dance and music, fusing it with contemporary elements and making it appealing and accessible for a wide range of audiences. Besides, this project tries to initiate reflection about the role of dance as a tool to find identity, to value traditional knowledge, to express oneself, and to recognise and interact with others.
A Dança Portuguesa a Gostar Dela Própria also continues the mission of PédeXumbo, the promotion of traditional music and dance in Portugal. It is the first element of a portal for dances, which provides detailed information on the music and choreographies and sheds light on their backgrounds, their origins and the people behind them.
Enter this virtual laboratory, experiment, discover and dance on a choreographic journey through Portugal and contribute keeping Portuguese dance alive and dynamic.
Teeling Storis about cities
In this video works to promote the Apuan Riviera in Italy as a tourist destination, as part of the promotional campaign Apuan Riviera: Emotions on stage. Produced as an outcome of the Dance (Algo)rhythms activities of the Culture Moves project, this video showcases a video-mapping installation created by Studio RF that re-uses Europeana and other archival content alongside a related dance performance. It can be seen as an example of dance, digital content and tourism interacting to tell the story of a place. What do you notice about the interactions between dance and the digital in how it tells the story of the Apuan Rivera?
In a postcard placed on the Museum list, our colleague Pedro Cardoso Pereira warns of the process of relevance in heritage.
His thesis, with which we are in agreement, is based on the idea that today, what we call Heritage (which in fact is already due to its inheritance complexity) has undergone a paradigm shift. As such, it argues what we call Heritage (s) has lost relevance. The question of the structure of relevance in heritage is one of the contributions of this colleague of ours to the Studies of Heritage. These contributions are worth reading and knowing. But that is not what caught our attention.
The issue that interests us here is the paradigm shift. The question of the paradigm is another complex issue that since Tomás Khun affects the philosophy of Science. In other words, the thesis is that in the face of a paradigm transformation, the structure of relevance (the complex of socially constructed values) also changes. In other words, a given historical time has a set of characteristics (social values) that we can observe through the respective heritage, or set of social objects that have been left to us. Now, the question that is worth discussing is knowing what to do with legacy objects, which in a given transition process cease to have the social relevance attributed to them. Symbolic, political or legitimacy relevance.
In metaphorical terms, this is Walter Benjamim’s IX thesis on the Philosophy of History, where the Angel of History analyzes the “angelus novus”. Time, progress, development, civilization, inevitably turns the past into ruins.

Now if I understand Benjamin’s theses (with all the messianism that they incorporate), it will be necessary to overcome this cycle of destruction and violence by a cycle of understanding creativity. The overcoming of colonialism (of thought) and racism (in society) is not a discussion about whether or not it exists, but a discussion about how we are going to create other assets that are relevant in the present.
I really like to mention the case of the heritage built by the Portuguese in Mozambique. To simplify, I will use the example of the statue of Salazar that is in the Mint of Maputo. What the Mozambicans did. They punished me. Facing a corner. It hadn’t destroyed it, or it melted (it’s bronze). So they did with inherited heritage. It is undoubtedly contested, controversial, violent. But only by recognizing it was it possible to build a new heritage. These assets are like fallen angels, which, after having been useful, dissolve in the dust of time, to reconfigure themselves again.
In another thing, our colleague Pedro Cardoso Pereira is also right. Our universities are responsible for exaltation in dealing with questions of history. The grain of simplicity in problematizing heritage issues makes them co-responsible for violence in society. The inability to read the real (they are also institutions from other times) left them besieged in the “activist” pedagogies of the narratives of the politically correct ”and of the fashions imported from the American continent. It would be necessary for this to be an assertive pedagogy, which instead of proclamations and public acts of personal affirmation, would focus on decolonial pedagogy, working on the disputed inheritances on the basis of a culture of peace. Uprising is useless without liberation. But that will be for another occasion.
Continuing the question about the definition of museums as an inclusive narrative space, in the previous postcard, where we approached this issue from the Portuguese national museums, we concluded about the difficult inclusion of modernity. There is some tension between the Portuguese national discourse, which seeks to affirm a socially constructed identity, with a deep connection with nineteenth-century historical narratives (of affirming nationalities); and the acceptance of narratives that assume the plurality of voices that exist in their context.
Portuguese museological narratives are essentially elitist and univocal (monovocal). Its place of enunciation is palatial, built on an ideological reading of history, silencing communities and memories. It is true that there are some exceptions, which confirm the rules. In Mértola, in the continuity of a work that comes from David Lopes, Borges Coelho, assumed by Claudio Torres in a context of a life dedicated to cultural diversity, some plurality of voices was affirmed. Few influences radiated, although Torres has a (archaeological) school with several works south of the Tagus.
We also noticed a concentration of this equipment, qualified as national, in the capital city. Result of the time of museums, it is certain. But also in the city of Lisbon, as we have noted elsewhere (The Role of cultural Diversity for Sustainable Cities, 2018, 144)
Here, too, there is a concentration of “equipment” in its historic and tourist “center”. We are talking about national museums and municipal museums. Contrary to what happens, for example with libraries or as cultural centers, the neighborhoods where Lisbon residents live, do not have museums. There are no museums in Chelas, in the neighborhood of Padre Cruz, in Musgueira, in the Alcântara Valley, etc.
There are no memories of the people from Lisbon who built the city, there is no inclusion work or about the diversity of the city. It is not that the work that is now subordinated to EGEAC is bad. The point is that a strategy focused on tourists and elitist narratives continues to prevail.
Inclusion and Diversity are now round concepts. Politically correct, they are not critically questioned by museum professionals. What does inclusion mean? Etymologically it means to put inside. As a public policy concept, it means bringing marginal (peripheral) communities to the center of public policy. As the idea of ICOM’s DIM 2020 is inclusion in diversity, it would imply giving voice to the plurality of these communities.
And how do you work museologically with these marginalized communities to include them in their diversity?

On May 18th, anothehttps://icom.museum/en/resources/standards-guidelines/museum-definition/r of the conventional dates is celebrated, in this case the International Museum Day (DIM in disciplinary slang), this year dedicated to the theme “Museums for equality: diversity and inclusion”.
However, the lack of definition about what is and is not a museum persists. After the impasse generated by the revolt of the “national committees” in the middle of the Kyoto General Assembly, in 2019, where the decision on the proposed definition was postponed, the executive committee ended up renaming a new commission to study the subject.
I have already stated my opinion several times about the futility of this debate. To define a thing is to categorize it. Create limits on what is included and what is not included. The problem with defining what a museum is is that it is necessary to distinguish what the formal institution “museum” (organization) is about, what it does there (and the relationships that are established there (processes).
Now, we have known for a long time that the processes linked to heritage and memories, as social relations, happen in the whole society and in all social organizations, on which they build their mnemonic narratives of legitimation of power. It is not an exclusive attribute of the “Museum”.
However, there is an organization called “Museum”, which being a social construction, likes to portray its history as a “sacred place”. A place of contemplation that assumes as exclusive, because in it there are objects that do not exist, because they are endowed with an essence. This individuality is only accessible because it is mediated by a “priest”. The definition of “Museum” as an organization is a result of this debate over time, which reflects the different commitments about what is sacred and exclusive with criteria and categories established in a time of regularities.
Walter Benjamim, in his “Theses on the“ Philosophy of History ”, which I remember having a book in an edition of Assírio e Alvim (About Art, Technique, Language and Politics, 1982), speaks of the 19th century as a century of Museums. Like a time, where the nations under construction created narratives about an inherited past materialized in objects filled with aura (symbolic objects that had the function of allowing a transcendence of the individual and collective being).
Throughout the twentieth century, museums and their heralds have been cannibalized in different ways through different channels. They lived for a long time with other institutions of memory, (archives, libraries, universities), took the form of institutions (national museums, military museums, business museums, municipal museums), functionally specialized (art museums, ethnology, archeology, of natural history and philosophy of science). In some cases, they are modernized by building their own object (science and technology museums), in other cases by incorporating the social (of communities and territories).
Within the museum itself, where general and specific museology was stabilized, instability was installed, first through educational services (1950s), then through community museums (1970s), complaining about the “integral museum” and “museum as an instrument of development” (eco museum).
Between the first definitions of museums and their successive mutations and adjustments (for a history of the definition see hear, we can find the various dialogues and tensions experienced in different times that will influence the readings of the museum concept. Over time this concept varies and adapts. The current discussion is revealing of the impasse reached between the various visions in tension.
In the next DIM2020 we have an old definition that some defend, others consider as small to contain the new impulses. A definition that is announced to be reformulated and that pleases some and deserves doubts from several professionals.
What this means is that instability is installed, and as much as the current definition pleases many, it has already changed. Not to recognize the change is to do like the ostrich that hides its head in a hole to hide.
Will it be able to accept the challenge of Diversity and Social Inclusion?
The city and the pandemic

One of the activities that is supposed, or at least recommended by ICOM, as the task of museums in times of pandemic, even though they are closed, is to document that time in the city.
This is undoubtedly a difficult task for most museums and their professionals who have long been confined to their collections and buildings. For him, what the pandemic has brought again, at least for some of them, is the total absence of the public. Forced absence through compulsory closing of doors.
Documenting the life of cities, their inhabitants, is something that we rarely find in Tugas museums. With honorable exceptions, these museums centered on their collections, do not capture the life of the outside world. Its professionals, trained in Portuguese museum schools, also lack the skills to do so.
This year, ICOM proposes the theme of Diversity and Inclusion as the theme of the International Days that is celebrated on May 18th. Beautiful theme, within the politically correct discourse, which invites, in a year of tensions around the definition of a museum, the beautiful proclamations of principles.
It is still curious that these major events are quickly appropriated by the museums’ marketing devices. Failures in actions, capture external ideas, take ownership of the objects intended for that “international day” (remembering the social inclusion of diversity) to sell their own product.
It would be expected, as museum professionals are recommended, that, for example, in museums in a city, activities arise about its most deprived populations, about the diversity of its people, about the problems that exist in this pandemic situation.
And with some perplexity that among the abundant virtual and thematic initiatives that are emerging, this pandemic that affects everyone, which keeps museums closed, does not see a proposal for action by the museums that it affects.
In my meager understanding, a museum that is linked to your city would be on the front line to face the pandemic. I didn’t pretend that life runs normally, in a virtual way. Debating is not enough. Action is needed.
My city:
I leave. I can’t find anyone on the path. I hear the birds singing and watch the spring in flora. If this was a normal time, people would see bustling, running to their destinations. I feel the sun on my face. I delight in the sweet breeze of the Swiss wind. On the way, amused to count pebbles, I get a call from cousin Ana saying that she is pregnant. There is life expectancy in everything. I keep walking. I get lost in the cliff. I let myself go where the wind blows. I will arrive at a good port.

Poetics of autonomy XII –Dia da Lusofonia
With the relief of the co-ordination measures, greater mobility is possible in Portuguese territory. The State that grants itself the right to limit the freedom of movement of its citizens, in the name of an alleged public health benefit, now recognizes that the risk of spreading contagious disease is under control. That is, if preventive measures were taken, instead of being at home, in social isolation, it becomes possible to move more freely, even though these movements are supposedly justified by work actions or family visits.
The well-being necessary for physical and psychological balance, which implied, for example, a walk in a garden near the residence, was not under coercion or restriction measures. But these tours were not supposed to translate into long walks on the beaches or in natural parks, closed or limited in their use.
Therefore, in addition to working on access to the natural space, it was less protected by the hand of the State. In itself, it is good news, even if cultural spaces are found, with the exception of libraries and bookstores, they remain closed, with opening scheduled for the second fortnight.
Access to reading was therefore not conditioned, although I could not walk in a physical bookstore, we had access to virtual bookstores and newspapers throughout the emergency period.
Access to culture was thus divided between readings and tours. Both limited. Now that the limits are widening, we can, in theory, do whatever we want.
One of these things is to celebrate the day of Lusophony, which celebrates the 5th of May. In previous years it was just a given. Now, in the absence of a topic, he has gained more followers on social networks, who everywhere write poems and exalt the virtues of the language immortalized by Camões.
Among the poems is the number of speakers. Proud tugas claim to be the 6th most spoken language in the world. 240,000,000! Two hundred and forty million say proud.
In fact, of those, if we remove the 200 million that are in Brazil, 40 million remain, of which 10 are in Portuguese territory. Of the remaining thirty, among emigrants and inhabitants of African countries, their number is unknown.
For example, in Guinea-Bisau, of its half million inhabitants, 10% less will be Portuguese speakers. There the Portuguese is in clear retrogression, compared to the Creole and the French. In Mozambique, there is controversy over the choice of Portuguese, after independence, as a national language, with those who defend another national language. In Angola, between Quioco and Quinbundo, Cabinda etc.
We then ask what are the results of the strategies for the language, who does it and how it is done, and what results are being obtained. I do not dare to give an opinion but I fear that it may not be encouraging. We therefore have no choice but to continue to live in this illusion of the imperial language and perhaps it would be good for us to celebrate the dialogue of our language with the other languages that make this language grow.

The COVID 17 crisis has a profound effect on everyday life around the world. In Portugal, as in most European countries, we live confined in our homes. Business, commerce, services have been severely affected. The citizen’s life started to be centered on his home. Around him, the restricted family nucleus. It was proved from contact with friends, from meeting with others.
At the same time, he was deprived of work. It is true that not everyone stopped working. But among the various sectors affected by the power outage are some service sectors.
Among health and social assistance services, in full load, perhaps even overloaded for obvious reasons; the security and emergency services, more vigilant of the so-called social peace and in the control of the state of emergency; education services, facing a troubled technological transition, however cut by the Easter period; to completely paralyzed services. Among the latter is culture.
When all cultural facilities are closed, without exception, whether public or private, a conclusion is inevitable: The services provided by culture seem irrelevant to the resolution of the COVID crisis 19.
Is this really the reality?
The Gift of Fantasy
Imagination and fantasy is more useful than abstraction and positive thinking.

“Archimedes da Silva Santos left us.
Today, in Lisbon, at the age of 98, the doctor Dr. Arquimedes da Silva Santos, specialist in child neuropsychiatry, introducer in Portugal of Education through Art, died. He was a poet, writer and essayist, and author of an extensive literary work.
As a university student in Coimbra, she had a great theatrical and literary activity with names such as Fernando Namora, Joaquim Namorado, Fernando Lopes Graça, João José Cochofel and Eduardo Lourenço.
With Alves Redol, Dias Lourenço and others, he created, even before his stay in Coimbra, the neorealist movement in Vila Franca de Xira, a precursor of the movement at national level.
Member of the Communist Party was in exile in Paris during the Estado Novo.
He had a prominent role in various organizations related to Artistic Intervention and Art Education, namely the Portuguese Association for Education through Art, the Child Support Institute, the Portuguese Association of Music Education, and the Portuguese Association of Music Therapy, as well as at the Promotional Association of the Neo-Realism Museum.
It was awarded by the Presidency of the Republic:

- in 1998: Commander of the Order of Infante D. Henrique “For the relevant pedagogical and teaching activity, in particular for his action in the field of pedopsychiatry and for his committed intervention in favor of the development of art in education and art education”
- in 2001: Grand Cross of the Order of Public Instruction. “