about BaixoCentro

BaixoCentro is a collaborative, horizontal, independent and auto-managed street festival conducted by an open network of producers interested in reframing that region of Sao Paulo downtown area, around the Minhocão viaduct or “Big Worm” (it comprises the districts of Vila Buarque, Santa Cecilia, Campos Elisios, Barra Funda and Luz). With the slogan “The streets are made for dancing”, BaixoCentro wants to encourage the appropriation of public space by people and make them interact in daily basis in a more humane way. It is a movement of civil occupation that wants to crack, hack and play in the streets. All production steps are done made in an horizontal, associative, open and free manner. There is no institution behind: nor companies, NGOs or government. Funding is also collective and associative via crowdfunding online platforms, as KickStarter, and other independent fundraising options (such as auction, raffle and donations).

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FIRST EDITION OF BAIXOCENTRO FESTIVAL BEGINS NEXT FRIDAY

A movie theater projected under the Minhocão, a giant viaduct in the middle of the city, is the first of more than 100 activities of the collaborative event, which will take place in several venues of the lower downtown area of Sao Paulo until April 1st.

BaixoCentro, an open network of producers made up of cultural institutions, collectives, artists and producers who work in the Minhocão area (Big Worm, in a rough translation), in Sao Paulo, is proud to announce the first edition of the street festival this Friday, March 23rd. BaixoCentro refers to the lower downtown area of South America’s largest city, where recently made public policies tried to increase the gentrification process and the real state market. The complete program can be seen in the website http://programacao.baixocentro.org (in Portuguese): click on the map icons to see a summary of each activity and click on the link (title) for more details. There’ll be more than 100 activities from movie screenings, music performances, theater plays, workshops, performances, street interventions, and guided walks to several other actions. Friday will be the day to warm up for the packed program on Saturday. Cinóia: Cinema to smokers and caffeine compulsives, one-hour short films sessions that dialogue with the concept of occupation/aesthetics of the streets begins at 8:30 pm. It will be set up in a space below the Minhocão, near the intersection of São João Av and Helvetia St. After the sessions, the audience will be invited to join a procession with the multimedia trailer, playing music and projecting videos in the buildings. In the following morning, the audience can take up an outdoor yoga class (at 10am), then go to a performance about swapping objects (at noon) and a course of how to handcraft folkloric dolls (at 1pm). At 2pm takes places the highlight of the first weekend schedule: the Sharing Picnic. People will be able to share media files freely with pendrives and external HDDs inside the Hacker Bus while having drinks and bologna sandwiches. Three music shows will take place at Arouche Square, another traditional place in São Paulo downtown area. The first show is the EletroUrbana performance, with music and poetry for 45 minutes. Then, Os Augustos trio play Indie Rock and Folk for almost 2 hours. At late afternoon, the party-procession of DJ Tutu Moraes called Santo Forte! – an expression linked to candomblé and Afro-Brazilian cultures – arrives at Arouche Square and invite people to dance Brazilian music. Other highlights: - Autonomous Soccer of Dawn (at midnight on Saturday, March 23rd, and going through the dawn of March 24th): Seven minutes mini-games of soccer opened to the public. The teams have just five players each, and before the matches, the audience can participate of a discussion about soccer and occupation of public spaces of the city. - Hanging Gardens (kick off at 8am on Sunday, April 1st): Four hundred square meters (4,305 square feet) of grass will cover the Minhocão on Sunday. And a picnic with small pools, balls to play and kids will take place at the garden sustained by the pillars of the viaduct. How would be if Minhocão was closed forever and a garden was built in that place, like the High Line in NYC? - Kinô CinePool (8pm of Sunday, April 1st): To close the Hanging Gardens activities and of the Festival, a projection of several scenes about water at the Minhocão itself. The public can see it from inside small pools of 1,000 liters set up on the viaduct. - Tent: During the last weekend, the Marechal Deodoro Square will be home of a fixed tent with diverse activities, from projections with interactive contents made by the audience (Projeta!, 7pm, March 31st) to a dance group with poetry and about Afro culture (Dança com P, 4:30pm, on Sunday, April 1st) and a lot of music performances. For more information go to baixocentro.org or facebook.com/baixocentro. Full program is available at programacao.baixocentro.org (in Portuguese).