Hugo Miguel Coelho, artistic director and project coordinator at ExQuorum
Hugo Miguel Coelho is artistic director and project coordinator at ExQuorum. He is a director, writer, animator and producer. He has collaborated with several social entities through participatory artistic practices. He directs the creative project Coisasdocorpo, in the field of theater, video and spokenword.
Can you tell us why you chose to join the project?
The cooperative work, at an international level in the artistic field allied to political and social awareness, based on historical memory, has been, for almost 15 years, the engine that sustains our work, continuously, especially for the last ten years.
It was logical that ExQuorum should participate, for all the contemporary contents proposed; for the form proposed (foundation of continuity of a structure of artistic production); for the relationship of trust, and for the opportunity of tightening connections and collaborations.
What do you think the fact of working at the European scale is bringing to the project ?
We already have experience working at this scale and we want to keep investing in. The relationship between local intervention and this more globalizing relationship is, in fact, one of the pillars of our existence as a creative and participatory group.
Nowadays, maybe even more than in other times, it is crucial to invest in international relations, in the dialogue with “the others”, in multiculturalism, in the European existence.
How do you see your role within the project, what can you bring to this partnership ?
We have found two fundamental spaces for our participation. The first is clearly to promote and sustain our relationship in the context of a small city, although it is the district capital, in a sparsely populated region that is changing rapidly. The second, is this relationship that has been slow to change, that of being a peripheral representative (at various levels), with our European partners and especially with the center of Europe, which has categorically become de facto centralized, with the post-Brexit period.
What are the most common challenges faced your organization in terms of ecology?
There are two central points here that we in the Alentejo and Portugal will soon be dealing with: first, with climate change and the Green Deal, Portugal will have to seek new forms of communication and transport, since it does not have a transport network, namely railroads, as improved as the center of Europe has (thus continuing to be dependent on air travel); second, also due to the impact of climate change, there will be significant changes in the coming years, namely water scarcity and acute and prolonged droughts; which will naturally bring new perspectives and habits, including labor.
What do you hope LeCAKE will bring to your organization?
We hope that LeCAKE project will allow the improvement at another level, more developed, of international and local relations, in a logic of inter-relationships that will be fulfilled in a more continuous and sustainable way.
What do you hope LeCAKE will bring to the cultural sector as a whole?
We trust that it will allow a more structured relationship, with long-term perspectives, that promotes and deepens relations with the various social and economic areas, and that allows taking into account the world as a whole, in constant change; allowing not to go after opportunities but to create – and anticipate – its own paths, ideally, in dialogue, in partnership, in cooperation.
