A Reconnecting Place

The Rego Neighbourhood (Bairro do Rego) is located right in the centre of Lisbon. However, it ended up isolated, like an island, with three freeways and a railway encircling it and highlighting its boundaries. The neighbourhood, as we know it, started to form in the beginning of the 20th century. The distinctive parts that make the neighbourhood today were not joined by planning; it was their isolation, or insularity, that brought them together. What makes the social fabric of Bairro do Rego today is very vivid multiculturality – African descendants, Gypsy, Portuguese… Visually the urban area is marked by strong contrast between the luxurious residences and the social housing buildings, the memory of once bustling market that today houses a supermarket franchise, Communist Party Headquarters in front of what was Stock Market, or appropriated gardens along the busy railway and the view towards the Lisbon downtown.

In this context, the Passa Sabi Association was born in 2014 as a group of neighbours that started to develop activities aiming at creating better conditions for the community of Bairro do Rego. They invest heavily in the empowering people and increasing their welfare, intervening not just within the living community but in the space itself.

Activities

“A Reconnecting Place” is an activity based on the idea of movement, eternal return, and the four seasons (of nature, of life, of places, etc.). In this context, we intend to make a connection between four different spaces of Bairro do Rego – a) The interior/exterior of Associação Passa Sabi; b) A children's playground; c) An old market; and d) A bridge - through a flash mob - an event choreographed with the participation of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.

The activities will bring together the neighbourhood community, PhD students from NOVA FCSH, artists and researchers aiming at activating the public space through a series of activities designed with, and for, the Rego neighbourhood.

Throughout 2022, the activities will be organized in four different, but interwoven, actions whose outputs will be part of the final performance - the flash mob - to happen in September 2022:

1. Arts and Spaces' Transformation in the Context of A-PLACE`S Project”, a Seminar at NOVA FCSH, open to PhD Students (March 2022-May 2022).

2. Creation of a musical piece inspired by the soundscape of Rego Neighbourhood.

3. Workshop in creative dance plus a Collaborative choreography culminating in a form of flash mob in four different spaces of the neighbourhood.

4. Creating of a video installation to be distributed in public space and on digital networks.

Objectives

To develop and apply creative placemaking activities:

- Through collection of soundscape and interviews, the neighbourhood residents will be included in the process of mapping the territory and making meaning of it for the different individuals and communities inhabiting the space of Rego neighbourhood;

- To create cross-disciplinary learning spaces and exploit the potential of networked artistic practices;

- Through workshops in creative dance, the interested public from the neighbourhood can learn to express artistically, creatively, and collaboratively.

- To overcome social boundaries and foster community building.

- Joining PhD students from FCSH NOVA, artists, and residents, throughout the year in various activities proposed as well as in the final event, the project aims to connect the “insular” Rego neighbourhood with its surroundings as well as highlight the rich social fabric and its value, for residents themselves as well for the visitors and passers-by.