Festival Política: Active Citizenship through Visual Arts

Festival Politica is an annual event that started in Lisbon in 2017, and over the years expanded to Braga and Evora, Portugal. Over the years it changed focus from Abstention from Vote, through Human Rights, Europe, and Ecological sustainability to Frontiers – topics crucial for debate and action throughout our shared global society. But how does one get interested and involved when the overall sentiment is each year more and more apolitical, with alarming numbers among the younger generations – according to the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance voter turnout has been declining globally for the last thirty years. As a response to these circumstances, Festival Política decided to promote greater political and social awareness among Portuguese
citizens through debates, films, exhibitions, workshops, concerts and activities for children as a “showcase and laboratory of the power of citizenship” (https://festivalpolitica.pt/quem-somos/). This article intends to reflect upon the articulation of the concepts of activism and citizenship (Harrebye, 2016; Tascón and Wils, 2017) with the visual arts, especially in cinema and advertisement videos.