Materiais Diversos is looking for partners for the small-scale cooperation project “The world’s smallest language” in the field of performing arts (theatre, dance, music).

Organisation: Materiais Diversos

Materiais Diversos is a not-for-profit cultural association that aims to support artistic development and experimentation and to engage communities in contemporary performing arts, particularly dance. Materiais Diversos is a member of the European network Open Latitudes and REDE, the Portuguese association of contemporary dance organisations. In 2013-16, Materiais Diversos is funded by the Portuguese Government, in partnership with the municipalities of Alcanena, Torres Novas and Cartaxo.

Its activities are divided into three areas:
1. Associate Projects: Materiais Diversos produces and promotes the creative projects of its associate artists Filipa Francisco, Marcelo Evelin and Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz, nationally and internationally.
2. Regular Programming: In collaboration with the municipalities of Cartaxo and Torres Novas, Materiais Diversos hosts artistic residencies and contributes to contemporary dance programming in municipal cultural centres throughout the season.
3. Festival: Since 2009, Materiais Diversos has propelled a region with little professional arts activity onto the cultural map, contributing to the cultural, social and economic development of its communities. Recognized for its national and international programme and community engagement, Festival Materiais Diversos has become a reference in the festival circuit.

Project: The world’s smallest language

THE WORLD’S SMALLEST LANGUAGE is a project that is proposed as a space for conversation, establishing creative encounters between a multidisciplinary group of artists and groups of Minderico, Mirandês and Barranquenho (as an example). The aim here is not to record something that was, but the exploration of possible come-to-be; less a museum and another fair. We want to investigate what these languages can and do mean today. And to think to what extent extinction is inevitable or not. We imagined a troupe traveling through an extinct land (taking advantage of the mobilizing and ironic potential of apocalyptic fantasies) to stubbornly present a variety show with what they collected on their journey: jokes and songs, burlesque choreography and epic poems, scholarly references and trained animals. A caravan of wonders traveling the end of the world.

See document attached for full description of the project (.pdf).

Contact: Sara Abrantes
E: sara.abrantes@materiaisdiversos.com; W: http://www.materiaisdiversos.com