Vogelfrei Biennale 2003, Avenida da Liberdade 25th of April 2017
A Voz das Camaradas (em portse)
The Heart is Present is a series of performances in public space since 14.02.2014 until present by Regina Frank. They are public interventions with political or environmental background and content.
“A Voz das Camaradas” for the 25. of Abril 2017 is the beginning of a series of performances that Regina Frank (52) develops in collaboration with other artists based on her previous work.
With Matilde Real (21) she developed the concept further featuring the clandestine newspaper “A Voz das Camaradas” , the voice of resistance from the 50-70ies and before in Portugal. It intended to awaken a political consciousness in women, many of whom were accompanying their husbands in the fight for freedom. It honors the generations before us that had to fight for the most basic of rights and suffered greatly as a consequence to their political uprising. The performance has three generations of women walking in one dress with 5 exits in different sizes. The youngest in the dress is Sofia Barreira ( 9) old to honor her grandfather who was imprisoned for five and a half years because of his revolutionary activities during the fascist regime under Salazar. The next generation is 21 years old (3x7): Matilde Real, Beatriz Muralha, Mariana Lima, Catarina Rodrigues.
The newspaper “A Voz das Camaradas" was written by women, some of whom could barely read and write, and it gave an emphasis to the fundamental part that women played in secret, during the dictatorship. It invited women from all backgrounds to tell about their experiences in an oppressive regime. The artists literally ad-dress the need of awareness that any kind of liberty should not be taken for granted by the younger generations.
