Next Friday June 28th at 6pm, the Centro de Estudos em Fotografia de Tomar, CEFT - Casa dos Cubos will be inaugurating an exhibition on the Festa dos Tabuleiros entitled “The Festival, the Expertise and the Know-How... From 1884 to the present day - the festival preparation in pictures”, which will be on display until next autumn. A partnership between the CEFT, Tomar City Council (CMT) and the Polytechnic of Tomar (IPT), with the support of the Comissão Central da Festa dos Tabuleiros and Coro Canto Firme de Tomar, this exhibition aims to provide an overview of the Festa dos Tabuleiros that is little known: the preparations for the Parade. In contrast to this contemporary photographic record, the exhibition will incorporate photographs of the nineteenth and twentieth century by António Magalhães da Silva, Carlos Relvas, António Passporte, José Augusto Correia, Eusébio Tamagnini and Asta and Luís de Almeida D'Eça, collection that is in the custody of the photo archives of the Centro de Estudos em Fotografia de Tomar.

The contemporary photographic work behind the scenes of the Festa dos Tabuleiros is the result of the ongoing Photography Residency accompanying the feast with the support of the Comissão Central da Festa dos Tabuleiros. This initiative has the contribution of the IHC (institute for contemporary history) from the NOVA University of Lisbon that is preparing the application of the Festa dos Tabuleiros for Intangible Culture Heritage of Humanity. This exhibition results from the contribution of various areas of knowledge such as anthropology, sociology and history, which here intersect with photography and archive in the expertise and know-how.

The team responsible for this initiative co-organised by CEFT/CMT/IPT is composed of: André Camponês, anthropologist and researcher at IHC/UNL; António Sousa, conductor and leader of Coro Canto Firme de Tomar; António Ventura, Professor of Photography at IPT and Member of the CEFT steering committee; Duarte Carolino, designer, CMT; Filipe Martins, final-year student from the Photography Degree and student employee at CEFT, Student Employee grant, SAS/IPT; Isabela Schreiber, designer, student employee at CEFT; Kenia de Aguiar Ribeiro, Photojournalist, Master student at IPT, Resident photographer at CEFT; Margarida Costa, archive technician at CEFT; Patricia Romão, Senior Technician at CMT, Member of the EFC steering committee and Tiago Braga, final-year student in Photography, CEFT contributor, Student employee grant, SAS/IPT;

Photography credits

Photography Residency at CEFT, 2019: Kenia Ribeiro de Aguiar, photojournalist, master's student at IPT;

Photography from CEFT’s Historic Archives:19th century, António da Silva Magalhães, Carlos Relvas; 20th century José Augusto Correia, Eusébio Tamagnini, António Passaporte, Asta and Luís Almeida D’Eça.