Masks have been having a place in the history of societies since ancient times. Currently, as a symptom of a time of extreme change, masks have gained a renewed relevance and urgency, materializing under different appearances. From online avatars used for entertainment, propaganda or activism purposes to the different movements that lead us to occupy or abandon the streets, our ritualized daily life is today full with practices of caricature, camouflage, disguise, face-swapping, masquerade, mimicry, protection, ridicule, social makeup, among others. João Laia (chief curator of exhibitions at Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art) and Valentinas Klimašauskas (curator, writer and one of the curators of the Latvian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, 2019) offer a look at the profound restructure of our multiples historical, socio-political, sexual and transcendental identities, questioning the current processes in which we metamorphose from one to the other.

For more than a decade, Diogo Jesus has been outputting drawings, texts, comics and music under various pseudonyms. As RUDOLFO he edits and self-publishes fanzines and music in since he was 16 years old; since then he has created more than 40 indie publications and participated in different anthologies of comics, both in Portugal and in other countries; at the same time, he has collaborated with several artists, musicians and writers. Curated by João Ribas (former director of the Serralves Museum and curator of Portugal Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale, 2019), the exhibition comprises the artist's autobiographical obsessions and his distinct perspective on pop culture. In his drawings and comic books, his cast of people, mutants, aliens and everything in between provides an endless commentary on issues such as creativity, gender and masculinity, and the conditions of making art, simultaneously pushing the boundaries of comic books. Apesar de não estar, estou muito features drawings, objects, videos and texts from a myriad of projects and publications by the artist since 2007, from his first indie underground comic books to his most recent projects as DJ Nobita and Gekiga Warlord, all featuring both his sarcastic humour and a eviscerating honesty.

National Geographic has explored the planet for over 130 years and is distinguished by challenging, protecting and inspiring humanity to go beyond. It all started in 1888 with an invitation, which brought together the 33 founders of the National Geographic Society in Washington D.C. Among them geologists and cartographers, bankers and lawyers, scientists and military leaders began to delineate the purpose of the organisation. Everyone believed that science coupled with a clearer perception of our world would have the power to change it, improving it. With neither staff nor headquarters, the National Geographic Society began charting new routes, discovering new cultures and going beyond. We celebrate Alexander Graham Bell, Amelia Earheart, Alexander Graham Bell, Robert A. Bartlett, Richard E. Byrd, Barry Bishop, Jane Goodall, Sylvia Earle, Dian Fossey, Jacques Cousteau, Robert E. Peary, and so other big names in the National Geographic’s history. To share the expeditions, discoveries and scope, the National Geographic magazine was created in 1888. Its first edition was sent to an exclusive list of 200 members. In 2015, the National Geographic Partners was founded and its platform reaches over 450 million people, 43 languages, in 172 countries every month. The will of our 33 founders was fulfilled. We reached the four corners of the earth and went further. 131 years later, we continue to point our lenses at the most inhospitable places and the harshest realities of our planet, we continue to pursue big questions and challenge thoughts once accepted, we continue to protect and inspire humanity to go beyond. But none of this would be possible without your contribution. Thanks to you we have already awarded over 14,000 research grants, supporting ambitious projects in the areas of science, exploration and conservation. When you read, watch, buy or travel with us, you are supporting the work of our scientists, explorers and educators around the world. Because of you, our cause exists. Thank you for helping us contribute to a more sustainable planet.

The União das Freguesias de Aldoar Foz do Douro e Nevogilde, remains strongly committed in promoting culture in its most diverse aspects. And also spread it in different parts of União das Freguesias in order to reach different audiences. In partnership with Calendário de letras, it promotes the VI Festa do Livro de São Bartolomeu which aims to encourage and develop reading habits, by taking books to relaxed and appealing spaces that, due to their characteristics, promote a closer contact with the public. This year, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the event will consist only exhibiting and selling books. At the same time and as usual, Mercado do Molhe will take place in Jardim da Pérgola do Molhe. This year only has 24 stalls.

There are more than 5 million Lego bricks, spread over 2,000 square meters, totalling about 100 sets, in 12 themed areas. Includes recreations of iconic films such as the Titanic or the Star Wars saga. With the potential to attract people of all ages, it combines fun with knowledge, as one of the themed areas recreates the human body in LEGO, thus becoming a Biology lesson from a different perspective. For fans of the Star Wars saga, this exhibition is also a must-visit, featuring spaceships, characters, lightsabres, iconic scenes from the films, as there is a strong likelihood of being wowed by the detail put into each reconstruction. The Battle of Coruscant, Trench Run or TIE Fighter are some of the recreations on display in the Star Wars District. The trip is made not only to the futuristic world of this cult series, but also to the historical past, romanticized by the film Titanic. For the Lego construction of the most famous ship of the 20th century, about three meters high and 11 meters long, around 500 thousand bricks were used. There is also a zone dedicated to characters from superhero films to scale, like Captain America or Thor; a 1:1 scale Avenue of Sports Stars, where Robert Lewandowski is on the list; a zone of robotics and fantasy; an animation area, which include the famous blue creatures, The Smurfs, among other attractions, such as train track scale models, and recreations of high-speed train models (Pendolino, ICE and TGV).

We see the Douro through the eyes of pioneering photographers: the magnificence of the terraces descending in gentle waves to the river, the bridges and tunnels by Emílio Biel, the work of the vineyard and the grape harvest of his apprentice, Domingos Alvão, the mimosas or the almond trees in bloom of the Estado Novo tourism. When the colour arrived, the overlapping hues of solstices’ gold and the old reds. This was and is the mythical Douro, with rabelos boats sailed by sailors, descending in a queue to the pier, the barrels towards the warehouses of Gaia. This Douro remains on postcards and advertising pamphlets. Carlos Cardoso, year after year, rebuilt today's Douro, maintaining the reality of its permanencies and changes, in black and white, between the memory of the images and their meaning, which only the contrast of shadow and light can make it clearer. Almost immutable in the time of the Ages, the ancient rocks, the granite of the Iberian massif, the shale of its torrid crushing. The shale blades challenged men and forged the destiny of the vineyard, they are the matrix of the territory. The photographer shows us his power, on the paths, in the blockades, on the ground of almond trees and vineyards, but also the raw material for his direct use and, here and there, the failure of the rock in the face of vegetation or the sign of permanence depending on the divine. On this matrix basis, the men produced the terraces according to their needs, then the levels according to the machines. The civilization of communication appropriates the Douro from the railway and explodes with the road. The landscape is made with iron beams, concrete and reinforced concrete spirals, in an old and new figure. To clarify this, there are no baskets for transporting grapes and protecting glass: the road culture is also that of plastic and ephemeral. So, because it is a photographic look, a new collection of images turns abandonment, neglect and discouragement into beautiful images of remains, of impure signs of pure longing. A visible unity is defined between the gaps in the shale blades, in their illusory solidity and the constructions that speak of the technical levels of man's culture. Both crumble, cover themselves with weeds, tear under the vital impulse of the trees: both speak of a past and a changing present. The shale layers dismantle like the railway tracks, defining new layers of ground. The abandoned stations, created to assert their Portuguese nature, are invaded by a thicket and desolation. Sometimes the two worlds of the old recent and the new intersect, in the geometry of the equipment, but always, always the greatest geometry are the mountains that reduce the scar the road that tears them. This built, marked and suffered Douro is doomed to be a dazzle. The matrix undulating of the mountains is deepened with concentric lines and the very white verticals of the levels; the precipices, the starry shales of gleams, the royal road of the river became systematic appropriations of man. But a viewpoint high above, a repainted bench to rest, the quintas (estates) multiplying the quality of the wine are other responses to what Nature offers or denies: Nature is indifferent to man, indifferent to itself, as a concept. The tension between the critical spirit and the longing or the search for beauty are things of man. This is what these images are about.

From 6 December 2019 to 27 December 2020, the Natural History and Science Museum of the University of Porto (MHNC-UP) hosts, in its core pole (Historical Building of the Rectory of the University of Porto, near Cordoaria Garden), the exhibition Cultures and Geographies. Marking its centennial commemorations, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto (FLUP) co-organizes with the MHNC-UP, and in collaboration with the Soares dos Reis National Museum, an exhibition that presents the collections that were part of the its museology and artistic holdings during the first phase of its existence (1919-1931). Originally used as teaching resources in three museum-rooms of the first FLUP, these collections, which, in 1941, moved to the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto, are now in the care of MHNC-UP. Through a set of 250 extraordinary pieces of archaeology and ethnography, visitors will be invited to travel over time and explore ways of life, experiences and rituals of human communities on each of the five continents.

The Wonders of Montfermeil by Jeanne Balibar After a long separation, Joëlle and Kamel finally divorce, but both are part of the team of Emmanuelle Joly, the new mayor of Montfermeil, a disadvantaged city on the outskirts of Paris. The team works to implement the wonders promised during the political campaign: naps for everyone; rooftop crops; sexual assistance at home; harmonization of human breathing; Montfermeil International Language School and so on. But dangerous enemies resolutely sabotage these good policies while Paris plans to expand, and the mayor slowly slides into a depression. Venue: Cinema Trindade

Surdina by Rodrigo Areias In a rural setting, an old man receives news that his late wife has been seen shopping at the street market. Outraged, he intends to hide from everyone, spiteful and sad, but his friends insist for him not to listen to the people and take advantage of this fact to grow himself stronger and, who knows, to marry again. This is a story of the fragility of being old, of what remains to dream and to love when one gets older and the body weakens. In an old and remote Portugal, which exists after all, despite everything we do to be modernized. Venue: Cinema Trindade

It Must Be Heaven by ELIA SULEIMAN Elia Suleiman leaves Palestine in search of a new homeland. But the search for a new life becomes a comedy of errors: the further he moves away from Palestine, from Paris to New York, the more new places remind him of his home country. A comic tale that explores identity, nationality and belonging, in which Suleiman poses a fundamental question: where is the place we can truly "call home"? Venue: Cinema Trindade

Fire Will Come by Oliver Laxe Amador Coro was convicted for arson. When he is released from prison, nobody is waiting for him. He goes back to his village, nestled between the mountains of Galicia, where his mother, Benedicta lives, and her three cows. Life goes by slowly, at the tranquil pace of nature. Until the day when a fire starts to devastate the region. Venue: Cinema Trindade

Patrick by Gonçalo Waddington Patrick (played by Luso-French actor Hugo Fernandes) is 20 years old and lives in Paris with his older boyfriend. He runs a teen porn website, which leads to him being arrested after a raid to a party. The authorities discover that Patrick is after all Mário, kidnapped from the interior of Portugal, in 1999, at the age of eight. He is given the option to return to his family and collaborate in dismantling a paedophile ring. Upon returning to the place where he was born, he tries to adapt to a new reality, but he is received with suspicion. His mother has a hard time acknowledging and communicating with her son. Patrick's two identities come into conflict: the life of parties, drugs, and promiscuity in Paris; and a new life in a rural environment and a family destroyed. Venue: Cinema Trindade

Zé Pedro Rock N 'Roll by Diogo Varela Silva Zé Pedro, the legendary guitarist of Xutos e Pontapés, is the greatest figure in Portuguese rock 'n' roll, having been a major proponent, not only as the founding guitarist of the greatest Portuguese band ever, but also by promoting the music genre as music critic, broadcaster and owner of Johnny Guitar, mythical Lisbon club and concert hall, where so many bands took their first steps. Venue: Cinema Trindade

The concept of Há Luz no Parque 2020, with light design by Paula Rainha and Joana Mendo, addresses lighting events of a celebratory, recreational and festive nature that lead to the (re)discovery of the light / nature relationship with Serralves Park as the background . In its 6th edition, Há Luz no Parque is an opportunity to discover the magic of Serralves Park from a dynamic night perspective. During the opening, the Textures & Lines concert by Drumming GP will take place - a percussion ensemble dedicated to contemporary music that has established itself as one of the most important collectives of the genre at an international level - together with the piano and electronic music duo made up by Joana Gama and Luís Fernandes, enhanced by Pedro Maia's visual textures. During the summer months, the Park opens at night, inviting visitors to experience different environmental and cultural challenges, such as pathways to different spaces, emphasized by a play of light which creates diverse scenarios, as well as guided tours to the Park that seek to show and highlight the convergence between the natural, artistic and architectural realm and, in symbiosis, enhance the existing remarkable natural heritage to discover the nocturnal life of the park.

Beings of the night - nocturnal amphibians, bats, and birds - are lesser-known animals, often associated with myths or beliefs. However, these beings have very peculiar ways of life and habits and play very important ecological roles in ecosystems. In this night out it will be possible to listen to the songs and discover the mysterious beings of the night that inhabit our cities. Featuring researchers of CIIMAR (Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental).

Clube do Choro - Porto has taken to the city's cafes and bars some of the famous songs of chorinho, one of the most representative genres in Brazil. In a tribute to the famous composer and interpreter from Rio de Janeiro, Jacob do Bandolim, the project returns to Casa da Música with a new formation that includes the sounds of the vibraphone, which will join the traditional instruments of roda de choro. The evening’s repertoire could not be complete without the choros of Radamés Gnattali, Garoto and Pixinguinha.

La Vie en Swing Trio is a French jazz ensemble that brings together singer Mariana Melo, guitarist André Pires Costa and violinist Esin Yardimli Alves Pereira. Together, they share with the audiences a passion for French music through the languages of jazz and swing which came about in the 1920s. Inspired by musicians like Django Reinhardt, Édith Piaf, Serge Gainsbourg, Charles Trenet and ZAZ, they mix more complex songs with the "chansons" that are immediately recognized with the first note of the guitar. This event is part of the programme "Noites no Pátio do Museu"

A series of absolutely improbable, yet extraordinary renditions (featuring Ming Smith, Frida Orupabo and Missylanyus). Renowned director of photography and filmmaker, Arthur Jafa presents in this exhibition works that he has been making as a visual artist for the past two decades. In film, photography and sculpture, Jafa's oeuvre reveals the determinant role of race, gender and social class in mainstream popular culture and in the media in the United States and beyond. From Spike Lee and Stanley Kubrick to Beyoncé and Solange, Arthur Jafa has collaborated with many noteworthy filmmakers, artists and musicians. For this exhibition, Jafa invited photographer Ming Smith and visual artist Frida Orupabo, and incorporated materials from Missylanyus’ YouTube channel to create an audiovisual experience that is both a political reflection and a visionary perspective.