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.
Julia came from Brazil. Sezen came from Turkey. Both have lived in Lisbon since 2008, the year of the economic crisis. Living in the city at that time was a different experience, as it wasn´t overrun with tourists yet. In a decade, they moved a few times in Lisbon. Sezen six times, Julia three, specifically. In a decade, Not only Julia and Sezen, but many Lisbon residents have had to move to different neighbourhoods, different apartments, rooms or houses.
In the age of global nomadism, the saying “home is where the heart is” is not sufficient to explain where and why we choose a place to establish ourselves. In order to feel at home, we all try our best to create the minimal conditions, while the politics of the rights to shelter, immigration, employability and property directly and drastically affect the way we live.
In this sense, Julia and Sezen are interested in knowing what “house” means to people of different cultures, ages, economic conditions, among other criteria. This meaning is reflected in the way in which we all create and inhabit our space on the planet. What is this space we consider house? How do we transform the physical space into an emotional space? How do we occupy a space in order to make it ours? Ind in what way does the space occupy, constitute and transform us?
Diversos