Message from the Secretary of State of Culture [30/01/2018]
"Dear students, teachers and other guests,
We all dream of building a better, more supportive, more participative and cohesive society. All of us, at some point in life, or in several, want to participate in a project greater than ourselves, we want to serve a purpose, a common good. We don't always get or know how to make it happen.
Cátia, Gonçalo, Luisa and Rafael, you know! With a gesture, sensitive, courageous, implicated and creative, they stood out.
Of course, winning a prize is an honor and therefore deserve our utmost respect and admiration.
But, regardless of the quality and beauty of the project, and the well-deserved prize, I would like to highlight the highest quality that, as far as I am concerned, have revealed. Empathy. They can put themselves in the place of the other, even without knowing their reality, their values, their codes, their language, their expectations or feelings, and make themselves available to understand all this. They experienced a different reality, and very hard, and they still translated it into art. It's remarkable.
To look forward to the pain of war, who, in order to live free, risk his own life, compels us to stop and reflect on the principles of humanity, history, politics, cultures, religions... above all, it relocates us.
As human beings, every day, in war scenarios or in our daily lives, we confront the difference, we are challenged by that or what is strange to us. And we don't always see these moments as opportunities. Opportunities to learn, to grow, to accept and to act.
To all the teachers and pupils of the Pinheiro e Rosa Secondary School our thanks for demonstrating how we can contribute to the construction of a more tolerant, more supportive and participative society.
The responsibility is in fact in our hands, in each one of us; and art can and should also be a form of intervention, action and citizenship.
Congratulations Cátia, Gonçalo, Luísa and Rafael!
Congratulations Teachers Clara Abegão, Olga Martins, Sílvia Palma and Anabela Silva!
Congratulations Pinheiro e Rosa Secondary School!
