Marta Bernardes e José Valente

This is the story of a bear who, “when the world began, at the time when everyone walked without carrying anything”, decides to wait without moving a foot for the fruits of a fig tree to ripe and be ready to be eaten. But as the title goes, Figs are for those passing by [Os figos são para quem passa]. Marta Bernardes does a staged reading of the book by João Gomes Abreu and Bernardo P. Carvalho that Planeta Tangerina published in 2016. She is convinced that “poetry is meant to be eaten”, as Natália Correia used to say. And she challenges the young ones: “Now, together, we are going to dream and get to know reality through our mouth and feet, and learn about other ways to relate to the world: walking in the sun and in the shadow with our hands open and words sprouting."


MARTA BERNARDES was born in Porto in 1983. She completed a degree in Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto in 2006. She further studied visual arts and multimedia at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris, and completed a master’s degree in Psychoanalysis and Philosophy of Culture in 2008 at the Complutense University in Madrid. She has presented visual, audio-visual, performing, theatrical, poetic and musical pieces on a regular basis since 2005 in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Tunisia, France, Brazil, Morocco and Canada. Her works feature in public and private collections. She published Arquivo de nuvens (Cadernos do Campo Alegre, 2007), Ulises (Rato da Europa series, Pé de Mosca, 2013), Claviculária (Douda Correria, 2014), A Inocência das Facas (Tcharan, 2015), Achamento (with Catarina Nunes de Almeida, do lado esquerdo, 2015), Barafunda (with Afonso Cruz, Caminho, 2015) and Ícaro (Mariposa Azual, 2016).

JOSÉ VALENTE (Porto, 1981) is a composer and violist. He has a doctorate in Contemporary Art from the University of Coimbra. He was awarded an honourable mention by the Lopes Graça Composition Award 2009 and won the Serralves em Festa 2010 artistic projects competition. He is the only Portuguese ever to receive a fellowship from the Hannah S. and Samuel A. Cohn Memorial Foundation after an artistic residency in the scope of the Djerassi Residency Artists Program (California). He performed at the Carnegie Hall at the invitation of Paquito D’Rivera, and he also worked with Dave Douglas, Don Byron, Alberto Conde and Shakir Khan, among other. He highlights the concerts performed at Dizzy’s Club (Lincoln Center), Coimbra International Jazz Festival, Serralves Foundation, Paredes de Coura Festival, Imaxinasons Festival, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Teatro Maria Matos and Union Square Park in New York. He also went on tour in India, performing at JKK (Jaipur) and the Bookaroo Book Festival (New Delhi). His album Os Pássaros estão estragados (2015) was considered one of the best of the year by critic Rui Eduardo Paes. He often takes part in cross-disciplinary projects with several Portuguese contemporary artists. He wrote Passaporte for solo viola, which was commissioned by Antena 2 / RTP for the 32 nd edition of the Young Musicians Award. He was presented with an artistic residency by the International Iberian Music and Dance Centre – Musibéria to record his latest album, Serpente Infinita, which premiered at the Solilóquios series of concerts. It was elected album of the year by jazz.pt magazine in 2018 and won the Carlos Paredes Award in 2019.