Centro Ciência Viva do Alviela
This intensive seminar is proposed as a space for listening, critical sharing, and experimentation, responding to the urgent need to rethink curatorial practice today. From an intersectional feminist perspective, it brings together performing arts professionals in a gathering dedicated to curating as an artistic, political, and social practice — one capable of reprogramming reality and activating micro-revolutions.
Over two days, we will explore methodologies that challenge conventional curatorial models, focusing on curating as an expanded field and contested territory. Alternative forms of cultural mediation will be discussed, paying attention to the complexity of relationships, as well as new formats for artist support — two key pillars for the Materiais Diversos project.
The seminar also reflects on curating in different geographies and contexts, its possible new beginnings, and the urgency of creating more hybrid, sustainable, and politically engaged formats. It advocates decolonization as a continuous process of unlearning. It proposes questioning the ways we have been taught to see the world, rebuilding relationships based on interdependence, and rethinking ideas of belonging. Curating is understood as a space where activism, creation, and ecology intersect, in a collective gesture of regeneration.
FUTURΛ is, therefore, an invitation to reinvent curatorial practices: a place to collectively imagine more critical, sustainable, and transformative ways of working within the cultural sector. A space for peer sharing where multiple perspectives can emerge, and where curatorial practice is called upon as a force of resistance and possibility. Imagining possible futures begins with listening to the present — with courage, care, and a radical openness to what has yet to be named.
Alessandra Mattana is a cultural producer and network partnership facilitator. Since 2019, she has coordinated L’Abri – transdisciplinary artistic residencies in Geneva, promoting experimentation, hybridization of practices, and dissemination of works. She participated in the creation of the university program in Contemporary Dance in Switzerland and in artistic and pedagogical exchange projects with Lia Rodrigues. She has researched the philosophy of education and the articulation between artistic and pedagogical knowledge. She was a performer for 15 years in international companies. She has a degree in Communication (PUC-MG) and an MBA in International Organizations (Geneva), with extensive training in dance and somatic practices.
Gaya de Medeiros (Brazil, 1990) is a dancer, actress, and director. She has created shows such as ATLAS da BOCA (2021), BAqUE (2023), Pai para jantar (2023), Cafezinho (2024), and Corre, bebê! (2025, winner of the Amélia Rey Colaço Grant). She starred in the short film Um caroço de abacate, which won awards at international festivals. She has collaborated with Olga Roriz, Victor Hugo Pontes, Sónia Baptista, and Gustavo Ciríaco, and was co-creator at the Companhia de Dança do Palácio das Artes (2010–2019). She founded BRABA.plataforma, focused on the trans and non-binary community. She has a degree in Animation Cinema (UFMG), dance, physical theater, and Butoh.
Human being, intersectional feminist, anti-racist, environmentalist, activist. Artist, architect, performer, dancer, teacher, choreographer of Portuguese and Angolan descent. She has a degree in Architecture and Dance. In 2006, she founded the female crew ButterflieSoulFlow, focused on dance, DJing, and graffiti. In 2012, she founded the Orchidaceae collective and has focused on researching the fusion and intersection of these dance languages to create vocabularies and an understanding of political and social contexts.
Silvia Bottiroli works as a performing arts curator, writer, and researcher. She was artistic director of DAS Theatre in Amsterdam (2018–2021) and Festival Santarcangelo (2012–2016), having curated international performing arts and discourse programs. Her latest book, What Can Theatre Do, co-edited with Miguel A. Melgares, was published by BRUNO in 2024. Silvia is a member of the first edition of the Rose Choreographic School at Sadler’s Wells in London (2025–2026) and co-artistic director of the Short Theater Festival in Rome (2025–2027).
Cristina Planas Leitão is a performing arts curator, playwright, and choreographer, with a practice focused on sustainable creative formats, new narratives, and caring relationships in the performing arts. Since April 2025, she has been the Artistic Director of Materiais Diversos. In 2025, she co-founded SUPERNOVÆ and, since 2024, she has been part of the group of curators at Something Great Arts Centre (DE). Between 2018 and 2024, she was curator and Artistic Director of the Municipal Theater of Porto, DDD – Dias da Dança Festival, and CAMPUS Paulo Cunha e Silva, leaving a legacy of artistic residencies, international expansion, and promotion of global collaboration.