GRAEME PULLEYN (ASSOCIATE ARTIST), TOMÁS PEREIRA AND FRANCISCO MARIZ RODRIGUES
A project by Teatro Viriato and Leigos para o Desenvolvimento
FROM 15 MARCH 2021
Imagine you arrive home after work missing São Tomé. Or you have never been to São Tomé and you would like to go there. Imagine that you open your computer and, suddenly, you find yourself next to the road, at the entrance of Formiguinha.
A guide welcomes you, and shows you around. You walk together, pass through the Largo da Amoreira, behind Manuel's house, arrive at the Largo da Sede de Portugal, pass through Rua do Embondeiro to the sound of the most beautiful music, and end up in the terreiro where Tchiloli is being performed. Along the way you hear stories from the locals, traditional songs, learn about traditional techniques and even hear your own thoughts in the voices and accents of other curious people who have already made this journey and recorded it for you.
"Roteiro Digital para a Boa Morte" (Digital Roadmap to the Boa Morte) is a video guided tour of the Boa Morte Neighbourhood in São Tomé, its traditions and inhabitants, on the one hand, and a meeting between foreign perspectives on the different corners and places of Boa Morte, on the other.
The project, which is still under development, is divided into two parts, to be carried out throughout 2021. In the first phase, Graeme Pulleyn will travel to São Tomé to finish the rehearsals for his "Visita ao Bairro da Boa Morte" (Visit to the Boa Morte Neighbourhood). Tomás Pereira will be accompanying him to teach a video and editing training course with a team of São Toméan trainees, and to film the guided tour "Roteiro Digital para a Boa Morte" with the course’s trainers.
Simultaneously, and from a distance, illustrator Francisco Mariz Rodrigues will draw a map of this guided tour, which will soon be available a mere click away, on a website where you can (re)visit São Tomé whenever you wish.
