OCCUPYING THE CITY OF SÃO PAULO

MIACENA – INTERNATIONAL PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL IN NON-CONVENTIONAL AND ALTERNATIVE SPACES was created with the aim of occupying non-conventional spaces throughout the city of São Paulo with performing arts productions and performance-based interventions.

During the festival, MIACENA transforms the urban landscape into a living stage, giving new meaning to places, encouraging reflection, and bringing art closer to everyday life. It activates the city as a space for encounters, resistance, and expression, creating new forms of interaction between artists, audiences, and their surroundings.

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FROM THE INSIDE OUT

The Festival takes place around São Paulo’s Ground Zero, occupying buildings, streets, squares, cultural venues, alleyways, bars, cafés, restaurants, and a wide variety of spaces throughout the city’s historic center.

By recognizing the city center as a territory of multiple cultural languages and expressions, MIACENA expands its reach by inviting artists from across São Paulo — including voices from the city’s peripheral communities — to take part in this artistic occupation.

And it does not stop there: specific actions and performances spread across different parts of the city are also part of the program, including performative interventions along their routes.

MIACENA is organized around two main axes:

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CENTRAL AXIS

Performances take place in São Paulo’s central districts (Sé, Liberdade, Bexiga, Consolação, República, Santa Cecília, and Bom Retiro).

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OFF-AXIS – OTHER VOICES ACROSS SÃO PAULO

Performances specifically created as site-specific works for other locations throughout the city of São Paulo.

The open call for projects takes place annually, is open to all applicants, and is widely promoted through our website and social media channels. The invited curatorial team is composed of renowned professionals in their respective fields. In 2026, applications were open from May 18 to May 31.

In addition to the commissioned performances, MIACENA features a series of parallel initiatives that expand both the festival’s reach and the period of artistic occupation throughout the city. These include:

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PUXADINHO da MIA

Puxadinho da MIA is our own “fringe,” inspired by independent festival models such as the Fringe. It was created to incorporate into the program performances that already have their own venues and wish to become part of MIACENA’s official program.

The initiative is exclusively dedicated to works presented in non-conventional spaces. Unlike MIACENA’s main program, which is entirely free of charge, Puxadinho allows participating productions to charge admission, since there is no direct payment to the participating shows. The organization may, however, purchase a limited allocation of tickets.

Click here to view the program.

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EM CONSTRUÇÃO [WORK IN PROGRESS]

Em Construção is our “testing ground”: a space dedicated to experimentation, research, and the sharing of creative processes.

The initiative welcomes staged readings, open rehearsals, presentations of creative processes, scene studies, performances in development, and work-in-progress formats, bringing audiences closer to creators and artists.

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EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

Exploring new paths for culture, creative processes, and sustainability is what drives MIACENA’s Educational Activities. These gatherings are dedicated to exchanging experiences, encouraging reflection, and fostering professional development, bringing together artists, researchers, producers, and guests from different fields.

Activities include hands-on experiences, talks, debates, workshops, roundtable discussions, exchanges, and immersive experiences held both during the Festival and throughout the year, creating an ongoing dialogue with audiences and the cultural sector.

Some of this content is also available free of charge through our YouTube and Spotify channels.

Click here to view the program.

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MIACENA CONNECTIONS

This initiative brings together projects throughout the year in collaboration with cultural institutions, festivals, artists, and organizations from Brazil and abroad.

It promotes residencies, performances, and exchanges of experiences, strengthening international dialogue and expanding opportunities for collaboration across different territories, artistic languages, and creative practices.

Unlike the Festival’s official program, these initiatives take place continuously throughout the year. Over the course of its history, MIACENA has welcomed artists and projects and developed connections with countries including Portugal, Spain, and Argentina.

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MIA MARKET

MIA Market is a program currently in development, created to expand the circulation and international reach of projects that have been presented at MIACENA.

The initiative aims to develop an artistic and institutional catalogue featuring works and experiences presented at the Festival, connecting them with festivals, programmers, cultural venues, and international touring and circulation networks.

More than a showcase, MIA Market seeks to create opportunities for exchange, visibility, and new partnerships for independent artists and companies. The program’s first pilot initiative will take place as part of the 2026 edition.

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SUSTAINABILITY >> CIRCULAR CULTURE >> CREATIVE ECONOMY

Sustainability and culture are fundamental pillars in building more conscious, balanced, and responsible societies. When they work together, they strengthen not only environmental preservation but also the appreciation of identities, territories, knowledge, and traditions that make up cultural diversity.

Culture plays an essential role in social transformation, directly influencing how people perceive, occupy, and interact with the world around them. Through art, creativity, and collective experiences, we can encourage new perspectives, inspire changes in behavior, and broaden the conversation around more sustainable practices for the present and the future.

With this in mind, we created MIAFeira – a Sustainable Culture Fair! A space dedicated to artists, artisans, creatives, producers, and entrepreneurs whose work is based on sustainable techniques, materials, processes, and practices.

The fair is a project in constant transformation — just like the issues that inspire it — and has already brought together more than 50 artists and exhibitors, reaching an audience of over 7,000 people.

Building on these initiatives, MIACENA also promotes hands-on experiences, debates, workshops, and educational activities focused on sustainability, circular culture, and the creative economy, expanding the dialogue between art, the city, the environment, and new approaches to cultural production.

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MIACENA may be young, but it is here to stay.

 

August 11–22, 2026.

...AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING.

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CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL PROGRAM