Paper short abstract:

Starting from a multidisciplinary participatory methodology, working with collective memories, spatial representations and wishes for the uncertain future, a collaborative public art project designed and built a sculpture, contributing to the empowerment of an ancient mining community.

Paper long abstract:

The mining village of Lousal, in the southern Portugal rural municipality of Grândola, has its origins in the 19th century. The mine was closed in 1988, causing the loss of the only local source of economic income and an identity crisis in a community mostly born and raised there, for whom the mine was the “prison” of violent and poorly paid work, but also the centre of their lives and their homes, as well as the great support base for the complex webs of social relationships and solidarity that characterized Lousal. In 1996, the Municipality of Grândola and the Fréderic Velge Foundation started a Project to revalue the mining village of Lousal, which included a museum, a restaurant and a hotel. After 25 years, the underlying dynamism of this project fell far short of the expectations of the residents and the feeling of permanent crisis and spatial injustice prevailed.

In 2018, a multidisciplinary team (fine arts, anthropology, sociology, architecture, economy) proposed the creation of a collaborative sculpture for the village. Starting from a participatory methodology which worked with collective memories, spatial representations and wishes for the uncertain future, a common ground was discussed and resulted in a proposal of a sculpture, built in 2019, after twenty months of intensive discussion and communitarian work.

The paper will present the projects’ methodological approach and discuss the role of anthropology in understanding territorial representations and practices thus contributing for the success of multidisciplinary collaborative artistic practices.