The Materiais Diversos Festival promotes the meeting of different audiences and imaginaries around the arts (dance, theatre, music and performance) with thought, questioning actuality and fostering cultural participation as a condition for citizenship. Born in Minde, in 2009, it spread to Alcanena and Cartaxo (in 2013) and became one of the most representative projects for programming outside the large centres in Portugal, attempting to think and act from the places it originates. It had been occurring annually until 2017 and became a biannual event starting with its 10th edition in 2019.
From the 5th to the 15th of October 2023, the Festival Materiais Diversos will be in Alcanena and Minde with a program of dance, theater and music shows, installations and conversations. Slowing down and making people, places and processes visible are the mottos of the 12th edition of the festival.
Since 2017, we have been developing Ver no Escuro, a spectator club created to consolidate a more participatory and critical public community.
Through monthly meetings, between 2017 and 2019, we took spectators from Alcanena, Torres Novas and Cartaxo to Lisbon to see and talk about shows. A version of the project was also created for dance students, following each show through a choreographic laboratory.
In 2020, we maintained the project despite the Covid-19 pandemic, and held the online spectator club, for a wide audience. In 2021, Ver no Escuro took place in Cartaxo, in a school context, where, through the exploration of artistic objects, a debate was developed on how art builds imaginaries, memories and stories.
In 2022, we intend to refocus the project on Alcanena, returning to the initial format, to build a community of spectators from the region who come together and travel to see and talk about shows. The program would be designed from an articulated reading between the CTSP program and the offer in the region and in Lisbon and, in each session, as usual, participants could chat with artists and guests after the shows.
Diversos