Ágatha Cigarra – Jardim das Descoisas [Garden of Unthings]
Laboratory for Confabulating the Here and Now
- 12.01 — 18.01 2026
- Espaço Alkantara
From 12 to 18 January, Ágatha Cigarra will create, at Espaço Alkantara, a meeting point to stitch together ideas, plans, and challenges around the context in which we live with our children. Claiming a future and positioning ourselves as agents of that transformation today is urgent.
During this laboratory, there will be three public sessions. Participants will have the chance to write, record, eat, read, play, listen, watch, draw, or simply keep warm, bringing what they can contribute (and multiply). This laboratory will serve to understand demands, urgencies, and to develop the new project Jardim das Descoisas [Garden of Unthings].
Session schedule*
12 JAN (Monday) — 13:00–16:00
15 JAN (Thursday) — 14:00–20:00
18 JAN (Sunday) — 14:00–20:00
*If you would like to arrange a meeting or a chat outside these times, you can contact the artist at: agathabarbosa@gmail.com
Jardim das Descoisas
Jardim das Descoisas is a project by Ágatha Cigarra based on playful actions involving children, from zero to 89 years old, which stir our creative imagination and disrupt adult conventions. It was born in 2013 as part of the TodoDomingo project at Casa das Caldeiras. It was supported by the VAI 2015 programme, took part in the closing of the Independent Culture Month organised by the São Paulo City Council in 2015, and participated in the Festival De|Generadas² at Sesc Santana in 2016, among other events and activities. In Lisbon, it has been part of the programming at Espaço Anjos70, Casa Capitão, and the Festival Precárias.
Jardim das Descoisas is carried out by a team of collaborators, united in “caraminholas”, producing an interactive space with activities in music, dance, hands-on and audiovisual experiments, always with a focus on “do-it-yourself”, the reinterpretation of technology, and the Brazilian popular imagination. It also brings together exhibitors of clothing, toys, and everyday items, as well as a carefully curated culinary offering for all ages.
Born in São Paulo — the city where she grew up in the daily flows of immigration and developed tactics for street expression as a member of party collectives — Ágatha CIGARRA has been a DJ, performer, music producer and cultural agent for over 15 years. She has spent half of that time in the Lisbon scene, working in partnership with the city and dissident artists. She has held residencies in the city’s foremost venues and is one of the driving forces behind the rise of street carnival in Portugal. Carniçeira, BLOCU, MeioFio (Alkantara Festival),...
