The commemorations of the centennial of Eduardo Lourenço’s birth begin on Tuesday, in Almeida and Guarda, and will last for a year, with dozens of activities and the goal of celebrating the life and thought of the philosopher and essayist.
Thecommemorative program begins on the birthday of the professor, writer, essayist and philosopher considered “a tireless thinker of Portugal, its identity and destiny, being unanimously recognized as one of the greatest figures of contemporary Portuguese culture”.
Eduardo Lourenço, who was born in São Pedro do Rio Seco, in the municipality of Almeida, district of Guarda, on May 23rd, 1923, died on December 1st, 2020, at the age of 97.
The start of the centennial celebrations of the patron of the Biblioteca Municipal da Guarda and the Centro de Estudos Ibéricos (CEI) is given in the native village of the essayist, São Pedro do Rio Seco (Almeida), at 10:30, with the inauguration of a memorial and a literary course set to music with the participation of students.
The Eduardo Lourenço Municipal Library (BMEL), in Guarda, will receive, at 2:30, the solemn opening session of the celebrations.
According to the municipality of Guarda, the ceremony will be attended by members of the board of CEI, the mayor of Guarda, Sérgio Costa, the rector of the University of Coimbra, Amílcar Falcão, the rector of the University of Salamanca (Spain), Ricardo Rivero Ortega and the vice-president of the Polytechnic Institute of Guarda, Manuel Salgado, as well as family members of the essayist.
After the formal opening session of the celebrations, the photographic exhibition “Contrariado, mas vou…” by Alfredo Cunha will be inaugurated at BMEL, followed by the start of the conference “Readings of Eduardo Lourenço”, which will continue on Wednesday.
Also at BMEL, at 5:30 pm, two books of reference on the life and work of the thinker will be launched: “Photobiography of Eduardo Lourenço” (by Maria Manuel Baptista, Manuela Cruzeiro and Fernanda de Castro) and “Eduardo Lourenço – A Geopolitics of Thought” (by Margarida Calafate Ribeiro and Roberto Vecchi).
The program also includes, at 6:30 pm, at Jardim José de Lemos, in the center of the city of Guarda, the inauguration of the sculpture “Eduardo Lourenço”, by the artist Pedro Figueiredo.
The first day of the Eduardo Lourenço’s birth centenary commemorations ends at 21:30, with the concert “In Memoriam de Eduardo Lourenço”, performed by the Orquestra Académica Filarmónica Portuguesa, under the direction of Maestro Osvaldo Ferreira and with the special participation of the actor José Neves.
On the second day of activities, Wednesday, at 10:00, the conference “Readings of Eduardo Lourenço” will continue at BMEL, and at 5:30, the book launch of the book “Shared Life: All of Us Iberians”, by Eduardo Lourenço.
Also at BMEL, at 6:00 PM, the exhibition “Made of paper with a heart on the bottom: Flying over Eduardo Lourenço’s ‘Suitcase'” will be inaugurated. It is an exhibition of books from the essayist’s library, curated by Maria Manuel Baptista, Fernanda de Castro, and Beatriz Stutz.
All the initiatives of the Eduardo Lourenço’s centennial commemorations have free admission.
The program of celebrations of the centennial of Eduardo Lourenço’s birth, which is being coordinated by the Guarda City Hall and CEI, begins on Tuesday, the date of the essayist’s birthday, and will last until May 23, 2024.
