BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Eventos de Portugal//Verified Events//PT CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:James Webb There’s No Place Called Home (Belém\, Lisbon) BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:James Webb There’s No Place Called Home (Belém\, Lisbon) DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Lisbon:20260831T080000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/Lisbon:20261117T170000 DTSTAMP:20260805T191207Z UID:d694f9a2-924a-4c85-ae35-e4eaace7a867@eventosdeportugal.com SEQUENCE:4 DESCRIPTION:tuuui trrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr \, by James Webb (1975\, Kimberley\ , South Africa)\, operates as two chapters of the same story — There’s No Place Called Home (Belém\, Lisbon) (2025) and Learning from Birds (20 25). Most stories have at least one main character\, a space\, and a time. The main character of this story is the song of a forest kingfisher (Halc yon senegalensis)\, a bird native to African regions south of the Sahara. The place from which the bird's song is heard is a magnolia in the gardens of MAC/CCB — Museu de Arte Contemporânea and Centro de Arquitetura\, i n Belém\, Lisbon. The other place in the story is the space of Rádio-Gal eria Antecâmara\, in Bairro das Colónias\, Lisbon\, from where the same bird song is heard. The time of the story is now\, 2025\, and simultaneous ly\, the colonial times that remain in public spaces to this day. There’ s No Place Called Home (Belém\, Lisboa) (2025) is the most recent iterati on of the series There’s No Place Called Home (2004–). This interventi on\, which began twenty years ago and has approximately sixty unique versi ons\, always follows the same methodology: once a tree is selected\, the s ong of a foreign bird — a bird that could never be found in that locatio n — is chosen to be transmitted through hidden loudspeakers in that tree . Birds and trees have a symbiotic relationship\, each benefiting from the other: some birds help disperse seeds\, contributing to the reproduction and biodiversity of trees\; trees\, in turn\, provide shelter\, nesting si tes\, and food for birds (Faustino et al.\, 2024). The tree species found across the planet are deeply rooted in colonial legacies. By placing (or d isplacing) the song of a foreign bird in a tree\, James Webb highlights th ese colonial legacies. European countries extracted resources from their n atural environments as a way to demonstrate their imperial power\, both fo r economic profit and for aesthetic reasons\, to display 'exotic' plants i n environments where they would never grow. At the same time\, European pl ants were intentionally introduced into colonized regions\, mainly to ensu re food production and survival\, but also for 'aesthetic and nostalgic re asons' (Crosby\, 2004 in Lenzner et al.\, 2022:1724). After the colonial p eriod\, the reorganization of global trade intensified and accelerated the introduction of exotic species worldwide (Lenzner et al.\, 2022:1723). Th e extraction and displacement of trees disrupt these natural ecosystems\, with effects on bird and tree populations and\, ultimately\, on humans. Wh en a tree is placed in a location unfamiliar to it\, it attracts other bir d species\, which in turn respond differently to the environment. These re sponses\, such as the decrease of pollinator species in certain areas\, ha ve multiple effects\, notably on biodiversity\, which is crucial for human survival. The birdsong in the Lisbon version of There’s No Place Called Home can be heard in two places laden with colonial legacies. The Belém neighborhood\, where MAC/CCB is located\, is full of monuments celebrating Portugal's colonial and imperial times: Praça do Império\; Torre de Bel ém\; Mosteiro dos Jerónimos\; Padrão dos Descobrimentos\; Palácio de B elém\; and the Monumento aos Combatentes do Ultramar. In turn\, the pract ices of colonialism embedded in the landscape are visible not only in the plant species found in the public areas of these monuments\, but also in t he Jardim Botânico Tropical (formerly named Jardim Colonial)\, with over 600 non-native species. On the website\, the description of the Gardens st ates: 'With a strong educational vocation\, aimed at the exploitation of t he former colonies\, especially in Africa\, it was considered an indispens able basis for teaching' (2025). The use of the term 'exploitation' is rev ealing in the contexts of colonialism and imperialism. The second chapter of James Webb's project\, at Rádio-Galeria Antecâmara\, is located in th e former Bairro das Colónias\, composed of the streets Angola\, Guiné\, Ilha do Príncipe\, Ilha de S. Tomé\, Macau\, Moçambique\, Timor\, and Z aire\, in homage to the former Portuguese colonies. Both urban spaces repr esent an idealized Portuguese national identity after the end of the colon ial empire. As Ana Balona de Oliveira reminds us\, these places echo 'the grand narrative of the so-called discoveries that continues to deny the vi olent histories and memories of slavery and colonialism. This denialist na rrative […] remains deeply rooted in commemorative monuments\, many of w hich were built under the aegis of the dictatorial Estado Novo regime (192 6–1974)\, while others were erected much more recently' (2022:229). The incongruous vocalizations of the forest kingfisher are transmitted to Rád io-Galeria Antecâmara. The bird's sounds confront\, in the LAST-MODIFIED:20260805T191207Z LOCATION:Lisboa\, Lisboa\, Portugal STATUS:CONFIRMED URL:https://eventosdeportugal.com/en/eventos/0f8f6b24-c08a-4c2e-ae57-37a1a b942ec4/james-webb-theres-no-place-called-home-belem-lisbon/ X-OFFICIAL-SOURCE:https://www.ccb.pt/evento/instalacao-james-webb/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR