In line with earlier projects developed by Danças na Cidade, alkantara focuses, in its first large scale project, on international collaboration and intercultural dialogue. Between August 2005 and June 2006, alkantara (Lisboa) and Panorama Rio Dança (Rio de Janeiro) organise a yearlong project in which artists and scholars from different cultural contexts will work together in addressing themes of cultural difference, the notions of cultural 'translation' and 'negotiation' and the creation and presentation of art in different cultural contexts. The project focuses on three issues: Encountering the Other , Nomadic Art and Location/Site .

Cultural diversity, cultural dialogue and intercultural competence are a few of the many concepts of Cultural Studies that have been adopted by the political discourse in recent years. When referring to issues like migration, minorities and globalisation, they are readily used as keywords in the struggle against intolerance and xenophobia, but, in spite of the transfer from academic models to political slogans, there have been few opportunities to test the viability of these concepts in the many areas of human activity. The main objective of Close Encounters 2005-06 is to research the potential and limitations of intercultural artistic practices, in a set-up that involves artists from different cultures. They will confront their individual experiences and cultural identities in a series of meetings to be held over a period of one year and create six performances.

The creation and consumption of art have taken an international flight never before imagined possible. Residencies in foreign countries, collaborations with artists from other places and cultures, international co-productions and tours have become part of the daily practice of many artists, cultural agents and publics. This evolution has created an often problematic, but always interesting tension between the local and the global, because the references, values and context that make a work of art come alive are inevitably entrenched in a local cultural, social and political situation. Can a work of art created in place A be understood in place B? What kind of 'translation' does a public of one culture need to have access to an artwork from another culture? How to negotiate a middle term between cultural relativism and universalism? In order to turn artistic nomadism from an academic question into a concrete element of creative practice, Close Encounters includes four different stages to take part in different cultural contexts and parts of the world:

Lisbon Encounter - 6 till 28 August 2005 : The participants meet for a three week encounter in Lisbon, during which they will have the opportunity to meet and get to know each other, debate the central issues of the project and start working on their creations in a context of exchange and feedback.  

Close Encounters Rio de Janeiro - 15 till 30 October 2005: Everybody meets again for a working period in Rio de Janeiro, followed by a first presentation of work-in-progress in the framework of festival Panorama Rio Dança.

Different times, different places : Throughout the year and dependent on the needs of each project, research and creation residencies are held in the places of origin of the non-Portuguese and non-Brazilian participants. Ana Borralho e João Galante were recently in Japan for over a month, Miguel Pereira will work with Karima Mansour in Cairo and Filipa Francisco will meet Idoia Zabaleta in San Sebastian. Other residencies will follow.

Close Encounters Lisboa - 1 till 11 June 2006 : Final working period in Lisbon, followed by presentations in the framework of alkantara festival.

Location / Site 

In this project, 'site-specific' is not understood as 'uniquely linked to one location', but rather as 'flexible, adaptable to various sites, responsive to various contexts'. From the very beginning of colonisation systematic efforts have been made to facilitate the global expansion of the art market by building the same infrastructures all over the world, often regardless of local context and without sensitivity for the ideological implications of the imposed models (e.g. the black box or the white walls of the art gallery are designed to create neutral environments, to keep the world out and art in). In this process, the notions of place, travel, displacement and Otherness were lost or flattened out. What does it mean to perform a piece in Lisbon, Cairo or Rio de Janeiro if in all these places artists play in similar theatre spaces for similar (educated, art-loving) audiences? In this context, 'site-specific' becomes the challenge of meeting the Other and confronting the difference.