Sounds, territories and experiences

Reflections on the CIG.A.MÚSICA Project and the Festa Roma

Abstract

This article reflects on the CIG.A.MÚSICA Project and the Festa Roma, developed within Lisbon's BipZip territories (Padre Cruz and Horta Nova), aiming to map and give visibility to the artistic-musical practices of Roma people, historically rendered invisible. Following a participatory action-research methodology and the concept of "musicking", the project articulates two axes: the valorization of musical and choreographic knowledge, including do-it-yourself practices such as building cajóns, and the promotion of open community actions, culminating in the Festa Roma, held at the Jardins do Bombarda. Read through the notions of liminality, festivalisation and the city as a collective work, the Festa emerges as a space of encounter, resistance and symbolic reappropriation between Roma and non-Roma people.