THE SPACED BODY – MEETINGS FOR REFLECTION AND RESEARCH is an artistic research project that focuses on the ephemerality of dance and the memory inscribed in the body.
Structured as a series of debates curated by journalist Tiago Bartolomeu Costa, the project seeks to connect thought and artistic practice, reflecting on how movement, despite its transience, can generate knowledge and leave a lasting mark.
Based in the city of Viseu, the project promotes three Meetings for Reflection and Research, in close dialogue with artistic creation projects developed by Play False Cultural Association, and featuring guest specialists, researchers, and artists, including Graça Telo Gonçalves, Marta Silva, Olga Roriz, André Barata, among others.
As part of a movement to decentralize research and artistic sharing, the project fosters new dynamics of community engagement and encourages networks of collaboration among artists, researchers/specialists, and audiences. It responds to the need to multiply spaces for thinking and reflecting on dance in different contexts, linking each meeting’s discussion to themes explored in the performance hOLD by São Castro and Teresa Alves da Silva, the artistic residency within the international Studiotrade network, and the participatory artistic project Corpo Coletivo.
The Spaced Body also reinforces the idea that multiple centers are needed — rather than a single center and a periphery, whether artistic, social, political, or of validation — through dialogue about community, knowledge, sharing, and learning, both about and from the territory, as well as from dance as an activator of community identification.
1 NOVEMBER | PALÁCIO DOS SILVEIRAS | 17H00
I. MEMORY AND TRANSMISSION
Memory Inscribed in the Body
In articulation with the project “hOLD”
Addressing the theme of aging, the piece hOLD, by São Castro and Teresa Alves da Silva, explores how experience and maturity add depth to the understanding of the memory inscribed in the body. For this meeting, Tiago Bartolomeu Costainvited Graça Telo Gonçalves, a Hospital Administrator with an academic background focused on aging, and Marta Silva, a Cultural Manager whose career has been closely linked to dance and to social and community engagement.
ABOUT THE GUESTS
Graça Telo Gonçalves
With a degree in Law from the University of Coimbra and a Specialization Course in Hospital Administration, she brings over 23 years of professional experience as a hospital administrator, having held several middle and senior management positions in various types of healthcare institutions. Among them, she served at the Coimbra Hospital Center and later the Coimbra Hospital and University Center, at the Rehabilitation Medicine Center of the Central Region – Rovisco Pais and its Continuing Care Unit, as an executive board member, and at Hospital CUF Coimbra, where she directed this private healthcare facility.
Attentive to demographic challenges and their implications for society, particularly in healthcare provision, she has simultaneously pursued an academic path focused on aging. She holds a postgraduate degree in Social Gerontology from the Bissaya Barreto Higher Institute, a Master’s degree in Gerontology from the University of Aveiro, and is currently a PhD candidate in Social Sciences and Aging at UNISF – University Without Borders, a partnership within the Euroregion Galicia–North of Portugal University Network.
Marta Silva
Born in 1978, Marta Silva holds degrees in Dance and Educational Sciences and has always worked within the fields of culture and social and community intervention. After a professional path as a dancer, trainer, and producer, in recent years she has focused on cultural management and local development.
In 2012, she founded and became General Director of LARGO Residências, a cultural and social solidarity cooperative based in Arroios (Lisbon), whose work has been recognized by numerous national and European working groups in the fields of Culture, Social Inclusion, and Local Development.
In 2021, the cooperative received the Acesso Cultura Award in the category of social access, and in 2023 it was granted an Honorary Mention by the Lisbon Municipality. In the same year, Marta Silva received the Natércia Campos Award for Best Cultural Producer, awarded by the Academy of Cultural Producers.
In 2025, she was selected as one of 15 fellows out of 890 applicants from 14 European countries to join the first Fellowship of the Alliance for Socially Engaged Art, a program that promotes social change through art and European collaboration, supported by 11 European philanthropic foundations.
Support - Associação Viriatos 14, Quinta do Perdigão
14 NOVEMBER | PALÁCIO DOS SILVEIRAS | 18H30
II. MAPPING AND IDENTIFICATION
Creating Common Territories
In articulation with the Studiotrade Network Residency
The Studiotrade Network is a European cooperation network that brings together choreographers, producers, and dance organizations. It promotes the international exchange of residency spaces for research, creation, and exposure to new markets and contexts for dance artists. The network’s philosophy is grounded in trust, fairness, generosity, and mutual commitment. Integrating guest artists into the local artistic scene is an essential part of this cultural exchange.
Building on the Studiotrade Network Residency taking place in Viseu, and focusing on the theme of cultural exchange, this meeting will center its discussion around the creation of common territories. The conversation will feature choreographer Olga Roriz and philosopher and professor André Barata, moderated by Tiago Bartolomeu Costa, curator of the debate series.
Support - Associação Viriatos 14, Quinta do Perdigão
III. SPACE AND INTERIOR (date to be confirmed)
Building Collective Identities
In articulation with the project Corpo Coletivo
Starting from the idea of encounter and collective identities, how can we propose a reflective perspective on what unites and distinguishes us as a community?
The project Corpo Coletivo develops through meetings with participants and collaborative work with the community, projecting their experiences and visions of the city into the artistic creation process. It is a project that emphasizes social and cultural inclusion, enabling a practical and collaborative exploration of the interaction between the body and collective memory.
This meeting encourages a reflective gaze on — and from — the territory, as well as from dance as an activator of community identification.