The Academia do Vagar is a space for reflection and dialogue that promotes monthly international conferences, meetings, talks, and workshops. Curated by Jacinto Lageira (University of Paris I–Sorbonne), this initiative places VAGAR at the heart of a new proposal for the future of Europe and the world.

23.04 | 6pm
JOÃO RAPOSEIRA, MARTA CORTEGANO, TERESA PINTO-CORREIA
#7 O Vagar e a terra - Agriculturas no Alentejo
Garcia de Resende Theatre
TALK

21.05 | 6pm
YVES CITTON
#8 O Vagar e a história ambivalente da curiosidade
CCDR Auditorium
LECTURE

After having been considered as a moral vice (mostly blamed in women) from Antiquity until the Renaissance, curiosity has been reinvested as an epistemic virtue (praised in men) with the advent of modern science. From the year 2000, new fields of reflection have emerged under the name of "Curiosity Studies" and "Ignorance Studies". This talk/lecture will briefly survey these long term evolutions, but its goal is to investigate more precisely what definition of curiosity is needed in the age of platform capitalism, and what crucial role Vagar is bound to play in it. The vagaries and vagrancies of study will be praised as our best responses to the delegation of curiosity offered by generative Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models.

YVES CITTON:

Yves Citton is a professor of Literature and Media at the University of Paris 8 Vincennes–Saint-Denis, as well as co-director of the journal Multitudes. He has published "Faire avec" (2021), "Contre-courants politiques" (2019), "Médiarchie" (2017), "Pour une écologie de l’attention" (2014), "Renverser l’insoutenable" (2012) and "Mythocratie" (2010). His first book translated in Portugal is "A Máquina de Fazer Ganhar as Direitas" (Lisbon, Edições 70, 2026), originally published in France in 2025.

25.06 | 18h
ANTÓNIO PRETO
#9 Manoel de Oliveira: espaço, tempo, movimento
CCDR Auditorium
LECTURE

SYNOPSIS:

In a speech on "the state of cinema", which would go on to become a key reference whenever slow cinema is discussed, delivered by Michel Ciment in 2003, Manoel de Oliveira is one of the examples used to identify possible alternatives to the "incessant flow of lights and colours" of "a cinema governed exclusively by impulse and energy, without the slightest critical distance", which, being dominant, seeks to respond through acceleration to the growing impatience of audiences. "Faced with this lack of patience, and themselves made impatient by the bombardment of sound and image to which they are subjected as television or cinema viewers, a certain number of filmmakers – among whom Oliveira – reacted with a cinema of slowness, of contemplation, as if they wished to revive the sensory experience of a moment revealed in its authenticity." There are certainly points of contact between Manoel de Oliveira’s work and some of the parameters that have been used to theoretically frame what is called slow cinema, but the points of divergence are no less significant. This is where the interest of this approach lies: could Oliveira be considered an heterodox precursor of slow cinema and, in doing so, help destabilise and expand that critical category?

ANTÓNIO PRETO:

Director of the Casa do Cinema Manoel de Oliveira, Serralves Foundation. He holds a PhD in Film Studies from the Université Paris-Diderot – Paris 7, with a thesis entitled "Manoel de Oliveira: Cinéma et littérature" (2011). Between 2012 and 2018 he taught Film and Audiovisual courses at the Escola Superior Artística do Porto and at the Lusófona University of Porto. Until 2018 he developed projects as an independent curator and programmer, having been responsible for the programming and editorial coordination of the complete retrospective Manoel de Oliveira – Grande Plano, Porto City Council and Serralves Foundation, 2015, as well as the curation of the exhibition Manoel de Oliveira / José Régio – Reinterpretations and ghosts, Serralves Foundation and Vila do Conde Memory Centre, 2009–2010, among others. Regarding publications specifically focused on Manoel de Oliveira, produced within the editorial activity of Casa do Cinema / Serralves Foundation, the following are noteworthy: "Catálogo Raisonné Manoel de Oliveira" (in partnership with the Portuguese Cinematheque – Museum of Cinema, 2024), "Manoel de Oliveira - Ditos e Escritos" (2021), "Manoel de Oliveira – Unfinished Projects I" (2024), "Manoel de Oliveira e o Cinema Português", "4 volumes" (2023–2025), "Manoel de Oliveira Photographer" (2020) and "Manoel de Oliveira: A Casa" (2019).

22.01 | 6 pm
PEDRO HUSSAK VAN VELTHEN RAMOS
#4 "Ando devagar, porque já tive pressa": o Vagar como proposta política no Brasil.
Palácio de D. Manuel
CONFERENCE

07.02
CATERINA MORONI
Collective memory and site-specific artistic creation.
Palácio de D. Manuel
WORKSHOP

26.02 | 6 pm
JORGE ARAÚJO, RAQUEL SOEIRO DE BRITO, RUI LADEIRAS – moderated by Ana Paula Amendoeira
#5 Geografias do Sul.
Teatro Garcia de Resende
TALK

26.03 | 6 pm
PEDRO G. ROMERO
#6 Chora.
Teatro Garcia de Resende
CONFERENCE-PERFORMANCE

Free entry.

30.10 | 6 pm
JACINTO LAGEIRA
#1 Vagar e vagares_Pequena introdução a um grande projeto.
Palácio de D. Manuel

20.11 | 6 pm
ANTÓNIO GUERREIRO
#2 O vagar, uma tonalidade afetiva idiomática.
Teatro Garcia de Resende

18.12 | 6 pm
AGNÈS LONTRADE
#3 O tempo livre como paradoxo social. Pensar o skhôlè e o otium hoje.
Salão Central Eborense

Free entry.