Made in Osvaldo

[in histórias magnéticas]

Made in Osvaldo tells the story of Osvaldo, a Cape Verdean child who, with minimal resources, builds magnificent toys from what he collects in the trash, which rival those sold in stores.

Around the tin cars that come out of his workshop, a world of play is born which engages the entire community and is taken very seriously. But this tradition finds itself threatened by the arrival of a multinational company that wants to patent these children's creations under its name.

MADE IN OSVALDO CREW

Original text, music composition, artistic direction, electric guitar

Sérgio Pelágio

Storytelling

Isabel Gavião

Friends call him “mãozinhas” [handy]. His hands are so strong that he can loosen nuts and screws with just his fingers. Adult hands, even though Osvaldo is only 13 years old. Couldn’t be otherwise! The countryside life of a child in Santo Antão is very different from the life of a child in the city: from the moment the former can carry a bottle, they are to partake in collecting water, picking fruit, digging the earth, and taking care of the goats. And to go to school, like every child, but they must do everything else. PLUS everything else.

From Sérgio Pelágio’s original text

Made in Osvaldo is História Magnética [Magnetic Story] No. 8, the second one based on an original text by Sérgio Pelágio. Adding to the repertoire of this project for children created by the musician over a decade ago, it is inspired in the documentary Com Quase Nada by Carlos Barroco and Margarida Cardoso (2001), a portrait of the wonderful inventiveness of children from several Cabo Verde islands applied to the construction of roller-bearing carts, which have fuelled games generation after generation.

In the creative expression workshop that follows the show, using recycled daily-life materials, Sérgio Pelágio and Isabel Gaivão seek to raise children’s and adults’ awareness of the inventive capacity that we can all nurture within ourselves and thus gain the freedom to be the masters of our own games.