Materiais Diversos is an independent artistic organisation based in Alcanena, with both national and international reach. It develops a plural and decentralised programme in the performing arts, with a particular focus on contemporary dance, affirming itself as a living, inclusive, and dynamic project, capable of meeting the challenges of the present. It is sustained by long-term relationships and essential moments of conviviality that nourish its renewed vision.
Materiais Diversos is a curatorial space committed to transformation — a commitment carried through the year and amplified by the materiais diversos festival, held since 2009, now in a biennial format, and unfolding over around ten days across multiple spaces in Minde and Alcanena. It produces and supports artistic projects that circulate within and beyond Portugal, working alongside artists at different stages of their journeys, from research to presentation. It may be considered as a house-laboratory — a place for experimentation, care, production and sharing.
The organisation is rooted in a territorial and relational ecosystem connecting spaces in Minde, Alcanena and Lisbon, hosting creative processes, residencies, presentations and public activities. It positions itself as a structure of artistic resilience for small and medium-scale works, supporting both established and consolidating artists, affirming their identities in full. It nurtures hybrid formats, mediation and transmission, cultivating a community grounded in care and experimentation. It places the body — and the construction of a collective body — at the centre, as a social and political force. With a collaborative and feminist approach, it places artists at the heart of the project, in dialogue with a vibrant community.
Since 2025, with an office at the municipal market in Minde and a new space in Alcanena — SINDICATO —, the organisation operates through three main strands:
— MATERIAIS DIVERSOS • presents — with the Materiais Diversos Festival (odd years) and the Materiais Adversos weekend (even years).
— MATERIAIS DIVERSOS • creates — supporting the creation, production and circulation of contemporary artistic projects, designated as Associated Projects.
— MATERIAIS DIVERSOS • engages — developing activities that bring works, artists and communities into proximity, creating spaces of encounter and participation.
In 1975, João César Monteiro, a singular filmmaker, made What Will I Do with This Sword?, a documentary with fictional inserts that alludes to the external resistances encountered by the Carnation Revolution in its early years. In one scene of the film, hundreds of men shout for “national independence” in front of a NATO ship anchored on the Tagus River; in another, a woman dressed as a medieval warrior brandishes the titular sword (the woman was director Margarida Gil, though she goes uncredited). The film offers no answers and certainly does not incite war, but its somber atmosphere leads us to question the fragility of the achievements of that “clear and clean morning” of April 25, 1974.
Just over fifty years have passed, and there have been many achievements. Yet, even now, persistent shadows multiply from the doorsteps of our homes to institutions we once thought untouchable. It was the 50th anniversary of April 25 that served as inspiration for the 2025 Materiais Diversos Festival — not to celebrate the past, but to commit to the future. What do we want to envision for the next fifty years of democracy? What shall we do with the sword that was given to us?
Without didactic pretensions, but with the civic responsibility that befits a cultural organization, the Materiais Diversos Festival continues to assert itself as a meeting space for people from diverse backgrounds and the arts. It seeks to suspend time (the time of shadows) and to create a context that can nourish curiosity, debate, and imagination. It values public spaces as arenas for these encounters and cherishes the multiplicity of voices that should compose a democratic plurality.
To the ideas of democracy and of future have been added notions of connectivity and movement. Thus, this year the festival aims to be a connector, making a diversity of knowledge, stories, and lesser-known voices more accessible, while inviting the community of spectators to practice the free circulation of ideas and to take on the responsibility of being a link in a chain that connects memories, knowledge, and possibilities. By linking past, present, and future, it is hoped that the festival will contribute to preserving and enriching public debate, plurality, and, ultimately, democracy.
Artistic Direct,
Materiais Diversos,
february 2015 — march 2025
In a living and ever-changing ecosystem — physical, symbolic, emotional — that we inhabit, the materiais diversos festival steps into a transitional edition, between what it has been, what it is, and what it may yet become. Here, time is not drawn in a straight line. It moves in a spiral, paced by bodies, by the seasons, and by listening. It is a sensitive time, pulsing to the rhythm of the land and of those who dwell upon it.
This edition invites us to see the past as heritage, the present as an active practice of care and desire, and the future as an open space for reinvention. There is a renewed attentiveness to what should be preserved, to what can be recycled, and to what no longer serves us — without fear of letting go, without hesitation to begin again.
This is the first edition under my artistic direction — still anchored in a programme conceived by Elisabete Paiva, to whom I extend my deep gratitude. In this gesture of continuity and transition, we open a new cycle — with the will to radicalise, gently. It is now my task to honour this programme, giving it a new face and renewed desire, weaving it into the broader project of Materiais Diversos: a project that reflects on the themes that cross and shape contemporary society through a gesture of presence, challenging political and social paradigms, and inviting shared experiences that serve as devices for thought and transformation.
We carry forward the legacy of closeness, of attentive listening to the territory, of partnerships founded in affection and resilience. We preserve the joy of community celebration, the strength of a committed programme, the radical spirit of decentralisation, and the discourses that question the present — connecting artists and audiences in a space of welcome and resonance. There is a clear intention to inhabit the body as a political and unifying territory — a foundation of contemporary dance practices — as a gateway to the collective, its transformative potential, and its unifying force.
Taking a stand is the central axis of my artistic project: situating the festival within local and national contexts, while affirming its mission from an international perspective, connecting practices and imaginaries, ways of making and ways of being. Combining sustainability with adaptability, the materiais diversos festival is a living, inclusive, and dynamic organism, capable of meeting the challenges of the present with a vibrant community, motivated by essential moments of conviviality, reflection, and action.
We transform the idea of programming from a straight line into a constellation. We create space for the invisible, the unfinished, the in-progress. This festival cultivates room for what does not yet have a name. Here, layers, tensions, and affections coexist. It nourishes the radical imagination of a festival without a single centre — because it has many.
Despite all the uncertainties we face, we are here! Come, talk, think. Imagine the future with us.
Artistic Director,
Materiais Diversos
If you wish to request accreditations or need more information, please contact:
Joana Brandão
info@jbcomunicacao.pt
General
info@materiaisdiversos.com
Office
October 3-12
Casa da Cultura, Bairro Mota, Alcanena
