Portugal and Spain are celebrating democracy with a joint cultural program that will last more than a year.

Portugal and Spain will celebrate the role of culture in both countries’ democratic transition processes with a joint program that will last over a year, until September 2025.

The joint program “Portugal-Spain: 50 Years of Democracy” was presented on Wednesday evening in Madrid by the Ministers of Culture of the two countries, Portuguese Pedro Adan e Silva and Spaniard Ernest Urtasun.

Among the initiatives already announced is the exhibition “The Power With Which We Jump Together. Women Artists in Spain and Portugal between Dictatorship and Democracy” at the Valencian Institute of Contemporary Art in collaboration with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (May to September 2024). in Valencia).

On the other hand, in Madrid from April to November this year, the National Library of Spain will host a series of conferences between writers and intellectuals from both countries.

The Spanish Film Library in Madrid will show in April and May this year the cycle “Constellation of Carnations. Revolutionary fantasies in Portugal” in collaboration with Cinemateca Portuguesa.

The Torre do Tombo in Lisbon and the Provincial Historical Archives of Salamanca will host the exhibition “Portugal and Spain in the Democratic Transition” from September to December.

Spain will be a guest country at this year’s DocLisboa Film Festival, while Portugal will have the same role at the Eñe Festival in Madrid in November.

This September, Torre do Tombo will also host a conference dedicated to ending dictatorships in Portugal, Spain and Greece.

“In my opinion, there are few happier ways to celebrate 50 years of democracy, which is 100 years of uniting two countries, than by celebrating culture and art,” said Pedro Adán e Silva, highlighting exactly what is missing. 50 days until my 50th birthday on April 25th.

The Portuguese minister believed that democracy “allowed a new look” at the two societies “and, in fact, allowed art to have a non-canonical dimension” and then began to “break and abandon those that were the dominant canons.”

The Minister particularly focused on contemporary art, recalling that these days the largest contemporary art fair in the Iberian Peninsula, ARCOmadrid, is taking place in Madrid, in which 16 Portuguese galleries take part.

“Contemporary art is an accurate and accurate portrait of what our countries are today,” said Adan e Silva, adding: “Portuguese society is a much more diverse and much more pluralistic society and therefore much richer than it was before, 50 years ago. And contemporary art has a unique ability to express voice, to give space and to depict this diversity, this multiplicity and this richness.”

Spanish Minister Ernest Urtasun said that “there is no democracy without culture” and this is something that Portugal and Spain “know well”.

“A culture free to speak, create and share, because culture and democracy have the same root,” he added, before noting that “this is one of the greatest teachings of Portugal on April 25” 1974.

“The lesson that the Portuguese people taught us then remains unchanged today. This great lesson was duplicated every day and intertwined with the disappointments, sacrifices and threats of totalitarianism and fear. He stands up in the face of war and injustice, always defending freedoms. “- said Urtasun, ending his speech with the phrase “Long live April 25, long live Spanish-Portuguese friendship.”

Pedro Adan e Silva and Ernest Urtasun performed at the official residence of the Portuguese Ambassador to Spain, where they also visited and opened an exhibition of works by 16 women artists from the Center for Contemporary Art (CAM) of the Gulbenkian Foundation.