Materiais Diversos kicked off yesterday in Alcanena and Minde

agenda

DATE

04 Oct 2025

AUTHOR

Umbigo

Materiais Diversos kicked off yesterday in Alcanena and Minde

AUTHOR

Umbigo

Until October 12, Materiais Diversos presents an extensive programme based on a territorial and relational ecosystem that integrates spaces in Minde, Alcanena, and Lisbon, hosting artistic residencies, concerts, walks, seminars, and exhibitions.

Materiais Diversos, an independent artistic structure based in Alcanena, with national and international activities, develops a plural and decentralised programme in the performing arts, with a focus on contemporary dance. Asserting itself as a living project that is adaptable to contemporary challenges, the festival reinforces, in this first edition under the artistic direction of Cristina Planas Leitão, the work developed since 2009.

It is in this gesture of continuity and transition that a new cycle is inaugurated, maintaining a deep rootedness in the territory, a commitment to the future and the desire to affirm the project as a “home-laboratory” - a space for experimentation, care, production and sharing, which supports artists at different stages of their careers.

Among the numerous initiatives promoted by the festival, the exhibition Guarda Rios / Escola Rio, on display at the Alviela Science Centre until 12 October, stands out, presenting the work developed by the Guarda Rios Collective in the Alviela river territory. This exhibition includes drawings by Marta Castelo, made with paints based on earth pigments collected in Alviela, and the film Diatomáceas e Hifomicetos – parte II, painted and drawn collaboratively by 120 students from schools in Alcanena and Minde on 16mm film. Also embedded in the territory, there will be a walk to Lapa da Cerejeira, meeting at Serra de Santo António, which encourages active listening to the landscape.

Throughout the festival, there will be several shows presenting different approaches to dance and the body. Created especially for children, Sara Anjo's danced fable Andar para trás invites the audience to imagine other ways of walking through the world. Carolina Cifras, in Conversaciones con lo invisible, reflects - from a necropolitical point of view - on our relationship with nature, revealing how the politics of death invisibly connects us to life. Chara Kotsali, with to be possessed, stages a ritual of spiritual possession, bringing a DIY archive to life. Also featured are No Corpo: Assim se conhece o mundo by Vânia Rovisco, and Pai para Jantar by Gaya de Medeiros, which investigates the words, feelings and archetypes surrounding the idea of masculinity. Closing the artistic programme in Minde is Uma Conspiração Animista, by Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz, a sound and choreographic piece that leads the audience into a collective meditation through the forest, a surrealist ritual that questions our relationship with the surrounding environment.

Music also plays a prominent role, with the concerts A Sul and Líquen, developed in partnership with the BONS SONS Festival. The programme also includes some cultural mediation activities, such as the Minderico Class at the Museu de Aguarela Roque Gameiro. The Festival closes on 12 October with a series of performances in the centre of Alcanena: “Sofreh‑e del – Spread of the Heart (Mesa do Coração)”, “Estúdio de Dança de Alcanena – Blackbox” and “La Chachi Taranto Aleatório”, followed by a closing party with a DJ set by the Entwined – suburbae collective.

Also noteworthy is the FUTURA Seminar - Curatorial Practices for Transformation, taking place between 8 and 9 October, which aims to rethink conventional curatorial models, discussing curatorship in different geographies and contexts as a practice of care and resistance, capable of reprogramming reality and activating micro-revolutions. Among the guests for this seminar are Alessandra Mattana, Gaya de Medeiros, Piny, Silvia Bottiroli, and Cristina Planas Leitão.

The complete Festival programme can be found here.

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