What if we all had the master key to the theatre?

It is with this symbolic and significant gesture that I have honoured Teatro Viriato’s 25 years of culture.

The public is an accomplice and witness to this ephemeral art. The key establishes a connection, a sense of belonging, trust and individual and collective responsibility.

In favour of 25 years, the key gives access to 25 mini-universes to be discovered in the miniature replica of its building. These windows, doors or recesses to be discovered are meant to pay homage to the people who make the theatre what it is, the different professions that come together to create a show, but above all, they can be sources of nourishment for the imagination.

The theatre is a place of assembly and endless possibilities, hence the attempt to summon us all to rethink, reimagine and rediscover the place each time. To design its present and future collectively. The miniature scale helps us in this exercise, just as when we design a set, we rehearse in small what we dream of in large.

The interiors, built by hand, are made from the theatre’s waste so that its history is implicit and structuring. From burnt-out filters, old flyers and posters to pieces of wood and wires, they were the raw material for construction, multiplying meanings and ways of looking.

This interactive installation is an implicit invitation to exploration and imagination, in a close relationship with the visitor, reflecting on their fundamental role in culture.