News | Project EXIMUS at the Festival des Langues of the Université Paris 8 Saint-Denis

The project EXIMUS - "We must warn everyone": Music and Portuguese exile in France during the Estado Novo regime (1933-1974) promoted three activities at the Festival des Langues of the University Paris 8 Saint-Denis, which took place from March 11 to 13 this year.

Following a proposal from Cristina Clímaco, a professor at the host university who is also a member of the project team, researcher Agnès Pellerin led a participatory listening workshop on the first day under the motto "La chanson, une arme? Les musiques des exilés portugais à Paris dans les années 1960-70". The following day, Manuel Deniz Silva gave a lecture entitled "Parcours d'un musicien en exil: Fernando Lopes Graça". Finally, the film Lá em baixo (2020) by Ana Isabel Freitas was screened and followed by a debate with the presence of its director.

The three activities proposed within this framework brought together students from the University (mainly from the Languages department) but also people linked to Portuguese associative life in France.

The listening workshop proposed a "sound immersion" into the diversity of ten songs created in exile, guided by some elements of contextualization. The participants were very interested in the question of their "impact" and their circulation, including in the post-25 April period.

The conference on Fernando Lopes Graça emphasized the "double perspective" of the figure of exile in the context of the 1930s, which, in a way, echoes today. Through documents that testify to the composer's experience in Paris, such as excerpts from letters, it was possible to emphasize the richness of his experience of exile and to ponder the "failure", above all economic, of the ballet La fièvre du temps.

The debate that followed the screening of Lá em baixo (2020), which deals with the permanence of folkloric practice in Portuguese associations in the Paris region, including among the younger generations, allowed the director to present the methodology of the fikmm whose participants were chosen by the heads of the groups. The interviews, as well as the original "behind the scenes" montage of the festivities, emphasized the role of the family nucleaus, the search for "authenticity", questioning the relationship with the history of the practice under the Estado Novo. The film also highlighted specific challenges, such as the transmission of the practice of string instruments.

These events were partially financed by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the EXIMUS project (2022.05129.PTDC).