Hosted at the Museu da Ciência da Universidade de Coimbra (Science Museum of the University of Coimbra) from 2 to 4 April, the conference will feature the outcomes of the MAGICA project, including invited lectures, a magic lantern performance, and visits to the exhibitions at the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra (MCUC) and the National Museum of Natural History and Science (MUHNAC), as well as the National Archive of Moving Images (ANIM) of the Cinemateca Portuguesa – Museu do Cinema (Portuguese Cinematheque – Museum of Cinema).

Click here to see the conference programme. Check out the book of abstracts here.

As part of the MAGICA: Science and Spectacle in the 19th Century exhibition and the final conference of the MAGICA project, a magic lantern and optical theatre show was also scheduled. This instrument combines the Praxinoscope with magic lantern projectors. This highly complex device was invented by Émile Reynaud and used in his Pantomimes Lumineuses shows at the end of the 19th century.

Abi Feijó, a renowned director and animation film producer, is the author and operator of the optical theatre reconstruction and the lanternist who introduces us to the mechanisms of movement of his magic lantern slides, on display at the Casa-Museu de Vilar in Lousada. In this show, Abi Feijó is accompanied by Elsa Cerqueira, philosophy teacher, lanternist and narrator, and musician Samuel Martins Coelho.

• Schools (MONSTRA – Lisbon Animation Festival): 28 March I 11 am – 12 pm I MUHNAC Chemical Amphitheatre (in Portuguese). *
• General public (MONSTRA – Lisbon Animation Festival): 29 March I 4 pm – 5 pm I MUHNAC Chemical Amphitheatre (in Portuguese). *
• General public (exhibition closing): 4 April I 6 pm – 7:30 pm I MUHNAC Chemical Amphitheatre (in English). **

* Prior registration required: geral@museus.ulisboa.pt | 213 921 808.

** This is a free activity, subject to prior registration: geral@museus.ulisboa.pt | 213 921 808. Admission to the show is free; admission to the Museum’s exhibitions, including the ‘MAGICA’ exhibition, will be charged.