In his work as the founder, programmer and artistic director of MEXE – International Art and Community Meeting, Hugo Cruz has especially focused on the relationship between artistic creation and civic and political participation. The research work he has carried out in Portugal and Brazil over the past years led to the writing and publication of Práticas Artísticas, Participação e Política, a book that is now the subject of a conversation – between the writer Valter Hugo Mãe and Nuno Cardoso, artistic director of TNSJ – and a workshop. Under the guidance of Hugo Cruz, the latter event will look critically at the subject of participative and community artistic practices, discussing its basic elements as well as its potentialities and fragilities. The workshop will also include brief introductions to the historical development of these practices, to the notions of culture and participation and to the quality of cultural and artistic participation.