"...Once the performance "is over," its process of making as well as the post-productional life is hard to trace...for it tends to fall into oblivion."

14 artists from various cultural and artistic backgrounds spent the span of a year (July 2005-June 2006) working with one another to produce and present 6 collaborative performance pieces for the Close Encounters project as part of the Alkantara festival in Lisbon, June 2006. The 6 'Close Encounters' collaborations were between: Miguel Pereira (Portugal) + Karima Mansour (Eygpt) Idoia Zabaleta (Basque Country) + Filipa Francisco (Portugal) Gustavo Ciríaco (Brazil) + Andrea Sonnberger (Austria) Ana Borralho + João Galante (Portugal) + Atsushi Nishijima (Japan) Claudia Muller (Spain) + Cristina Blanco (Brazil) Dani Lima (Brazil) + Sodja Lotker (Czech Republic) + Marcela Levi Directly after the final presentations of Close Encounters was 'Before and After the Show' a public seminar concerning the collaborative working process held on 11 and 12th of June. 'Before and After the Show' proved to be a rare and well-needed chance for the Close Encounters participants to present, discuss and generate some reflexive exchange on the year long process of collaboration. The seminar brought to bare both the difficulties and values of collaboration and how the process of working together influenced the methodologies, ways of thinking and artisitc and cultural contrasts of the participants individually.