Caravanserá
Lisboa, Porto, Cascais, Paris, 2026
EN
CARAVANSERÁ is a parade and an exhibition, an intergenerational celebration, inspired by the relational work of Rio de Janeiro artist Maria José de Figueiredo Ciríaco (Rio de Janeiro, 1939–2020) – Maria & José, the Queen of Good Echoes. The project takes its name from the caravanserais, the Persian name given to the secular rest stops of the Silk Road, on the journey across the deserts between the Middle East and Asia. Safe havens on a journey, they offered protection to long-distance travellers. Maria José saw in them a model and a calling to be followed by Rio’s backyards: that of being places of rest in art. Based on the structure of workshops (dance, music, scenography and sewing), the project was created engaging local participants in its development forging a celebratory temporary community.
Poet, troubadour, educator, Maria José had a prolific artistic career in which life and art were part of a multifaceted, polyphonic poetics. Spanning free neo-concrete art, oral poetry, children’s songs, drawing and interactive sculptures, her art, as she defined it, was DETER-GENTE – or the art of making people pause, “without fear of what lies ahead”.
A resident of the Rio de Janeiro suburbs, Maria José founded her Quintal das Artes where she opened up her yard to neighbourhood children so they could come and try their hand at the arts.
As a way of conveying her poetry, Maria José created small folded paper sculptures which concealed verses encoded in nautical flags, where each flag corresponds to a letter. Designed to fit in the palm of the hand, she called them porta-trovas, or poem carriers. Her work took life as its main reference, where her role was that of a witness-troubadour.
CARAVANSERÁ revisits these porta-trovas and transforms them into objects of playful interaction through the scenography and artistic collaboration of set designer João Gonçalo Lopes. The project marks a dialogue between the work of Maria José and that of her son, the time-based artist Gustavo Ciríaco. Sculpture and interactivity are the focal points of a dialogue between mother and son - a work that invites the visitor to take part and interact.
Credits:
Concept and artistic direction
Gustavo Ciríaco
Artistic collaboration
João Gonçalo Lopes
Performers
Abel Rojo, Esther Kasenda, Leonor Mendes, Sara Zita Correia, Ana Rita Teodóro, Uatomã Fattori
Executive Production: Mariana Pimentel
Cenography and exhibition design and building
João Gonçalo Lopes
Cenography assistants
Romeu Delmar and Francisco Lopes
Costumes
Gustavo Ciríaco & Vivi Curtis in partnership with A Avó Veio Trabalhar
Seamstress
Sol Costa
Original samba composition
Dado Amaral
Musical direction
Juninho Ibituruna
Musicians
Kito Siqueira – Saxophone
Ygor Rajão – Trumpet
Claire Haas – Trombone
Singer
Mayara Baptista
Video
Aline Belfort
Communication
Aviva Obst
Pre-production management
Carolina Gameiro
Production management
Luís Fernandes, Mariana Pimentel and Rita Maia - And Lab
Administration and financial management
Missanga Antunes - Per Form Ativa
Partner organisations
Pó-de-vir-a-ser (Évora), Centre for Modern Art - Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), Serralves Museum (Porto), Festival Art Explora
Accounting
Per Form Ativa