Sounds of Resistance | MAPS 2026 – Setúbal
On July 11, Luís Bittencourt presents Sounds of Resistance at the Mostra de Artes Performativas em Setúbal (MAPS) 2026, a performance that transforms everyday objects into vehicles for musical creation, critical reflection, and sonic exploration.
Situated at the intersection of experimental music, performance, and sound art, Sounds of Resistance invites audiences to reconsider the sounds that surround them and the cultural values attached to them. Metal barrels, plastic bags, glass bottles, and other ordinary materials are reimagined as musical instruments, generating a rich sonic landscape that challenges conventional distinctions between music and noise, art and everyday life, utility and aesthetic experience.
The programme features Import/Export: Percussion Suite for Global Junk by British composer Gabriel Prokofiev, a work written for a quartet of globally sourced waste objects. Enhanced by real-time electronic processing and visual elements created by Portuguese artist Flávio Almeida, the piece explores the hidden narratives embedded in discarded materials and global systems of consumption. The concert also includes Xcuse Me While I Kiss the Sky by Portuguese composer Pedro Junqueira Maia, a compelling encounter between the sonic worlds of John Cage and Jimi Hendrix, bringing together found objects, electric guitar, electronics, and improvisation in a dynamic and unpredictable dialogue.
More than a concert, Sounds of Resistance is an invitation to reflect on contemporary forms of resistance. Through sound, it questions established aesthetic hierarchies, reclaims overlooked materials as sources of artistic value, and encourages new ways of listening to a world shaped by consumption, acceleration, and constant transformation.
Presented within the framework of MAPS 2026, a festival dedicated to contemporary performing arts, Sounds of Resistance proposes listening as an act of awareness, imagination, and critical engagement. Between noise and music, object and instrument, the discarded and the celebrated, the performance reveals unexpected possibilities for artistic expression and social reflection.