9 May 2025
IV edition of “Diálogos em Marvão”

The Time of Women

“We have no way out that does not go through the human and the existential,” reflects Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro.

The annual “Diálogos em Marvão” is very much interested in existences like that of Hannah Arendt, who passed away 50 years ago, on December 4, 1975, leaving her work The Life of the Mind unfinished. The life and work of this extraordinary woman serve as inspiration for some of the themes and perspectives to be explored in the IV edition of “Diálogos em Marvão”, which will take place on May 9.

Held outside the major metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, Diálogos em Marvão is taking place for the fourth consecutive year since 2022. Its goal is to generate knowledge and reflection while giving visibility to a peripheral region, far from major urban centers, located 265 kilometers northeast of Lisbon.

At the foot of the São Mamede mountain range, near the archaeological ruins of the Roman city of Ammaia, Quinta dos Olhos d’Água will once again host this seminar of ideas—an ideal setting for the audience to engage in the magic of words from six guest speakers.

Words and narratives have always been the forces behind the societal changes that people have demanded. Language transforms societies and, above all, the way we think and perceive the world.

In this IV edition of “Diálogos em Marvão”, six researchers, journalists, curators, and managers will present their talks on art, philosophy, management, politics, and the representation of women in society.

We could name hundreds of women who, through their lives and works, have shaped the 20th and 21st centuries, but we will highlight just six: Simone de Beauvoir, Elisabeth Badinter, Angela Davis, Naomi Klein, Susan Sontag, and Marina Abramović. In various ways, these women have unsettled the notion of the “immutability” of societies, questioning gender boundaries, ancestral structures, and the mechanisms of social control designed to oppress women.

Pointing to the chaos brought by the violence of wars and the destruction of everything that had previously been spared, Hannah Arendt wrote in 1950, in the introduction to the trilogy later known as The Origins of Totalitarianism:

“Two world wars within a single generation, separated by an uninterrupted sequence of regional wars and revolutions that were not followed by any peace treaty signed by both victors and vanquished, make us anticipate a Third World War among the remaining powers. This waiting period seems like the eerie calm that settles in when all hope has vanished. We are not expecting the restoration of the old order of things with all its associated traditions. We have witnessed, in the most diverse situations and contexts, the expansion of this phenomenon on an unprecedented scale, where people become uprooted to an extreme degree, having lost their homes. It has never been so impossible to predict our future.”

In her essay on Walter Benjamin (Men in Dark Times), Hannah Arendt alludes to the angel of history, covering its eyes in horror at the sight of the ruins piling up at its feet.

We do not wish to cover our eyes like the angel, nor do we want to sink into radical skepticism regarding the functioning of our society’s institutions.

We hope that the audience, attending the six sessions free of charge, will share our passion for knowledge and critical thinking.

Ana Rocha