A Cultural Landscape Trail, a manifesto of transformation with people and places heritage
How to change a territory in a sustainable way? How to give a new meaning to abandoned rural regions when those who inhabit have urban lifestyles? Over 2 years, between conversations, workshops and art creation, starting with the commission of a work of art in the landscape, the collective and the 44 inhabitants of a village in the interior of Portugal, carried out the transformation of an old trail as a manifesto of participatory processes bridging the gap between heritage and contemporaneity.
Local
Portugal
Município de Proença-a-Nova
Mainly rural
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2021-10-13
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): MARQUES DE AGUIAR ARQUITECTURA E URBANISMO LDA Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Marta Last name of representative: Aguiar Gender: Female Nationality: Portugal Function: Architect Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: rua de raul brandao 81 Town: Porto Postal code: 4150-631 Country: Portugal Direct Tel:+351 968 470 090 E-mail:martaaguiar@magarquitectura.pt Website:http://experimentapaisagem.pt/en/in-the-water-lines/
How to change a territory in a sustainable way? How to give a new meaning to abandoned rural regions when those who inhabit have urban lifestyles? Over 2 years, between conversations, workshops and art creation, starting with the commission of a work of art in the landscape, the collective and the 44 inhabitants of a village in the interior of Portugal, carried out the transformation of an old trail as a manifesto of participatory processes bridging the gap between heritage and contemporaneity.
Aesthetic
Heritage
Contemporary
Environment
Belonging
The Art and Cultural Trail achieved concrete outputs for a sustainable environmental development of the village of Sobral Fernando, constituting an exemplar replicable model.
The project consists in an integrated sequence of actions of preservation, valorisation, and communication of physical heritage:
. the restoration of the existing trail was articulated between the collective and the inhabitants selecting the most meaningful places to signal and to refurbish.
. the inhabitant’s engagement in the embellishment of the village public places was deepened in the “Plan of Intentions”, an illustrated toolkit for a long-term implementation.
Consistent actions of preservation, valorisation and communication of cultural heritage were settled along all the project:
. the trail amelioration was deepened by a signage project with qrcodes linked to an accurate selection of videos, revealing the most meaningful heritage references of this village and its landscape;
. the artwork – Menina dos Medos– recreates and communicates in a contemporary language the heritage values of the geographical and cultural landscape, transforming the experience of enjoyment and understanding of its specific place.
The project stimulates environmental regeneration processes through campaigning and awareness-raising:
. the planting of trees
. the clean water campaigning with the inhabitants was boosted by the collective actions with environmental partners for efficient cleaning stations both in local visit and trekking and in the inauguration event.
.the process of co-creation of the Improvement Toolkits constitutes an anchor for an intergenerational shared vision of the village environment.
For a sustainable environmental development we implemented actions for an economic growth rooted in local culture and resources as the promotion of local artists (performance, tapestry exhibition), of local gastronomy (pastry inauguration, workshops and social events) and of the visitation trail.
The project achieved the co-creation of a contemporary aesthetic manifesto rooted in tradition and heritage: each intervention – trail works, signage, interviews, video, exhibition, performance, workshops, meals and pic-nics – were carefully imagined, designed and put together achieving an aesthetic enjoyment of a transformed landscape during each event but also, in permanent outputs. Through citizen engagement, the inhabitant’s perception of a territory burned by wildfires and decades of abandonment was substituted by a sense of belonging to a landscape where beauty is a common achievement and has a meaning rooted in heritage and in a vision of future. The participatory process developed in all the actions was grounded in shared experiences of aesthetic transformation. The preparation of each activity granted the possibility to value cultural features such as the way to welcome in one’s place, gastronomic traditions , local craft ship, and also stories and legends. This common ground was the raw material for the contemporary recreation of each event, each digital creation and of the artwork in the landscape.
The inauguration event, the video of the 4 generations of women, the Plan of Intentions, and the stories, embody this sense of careful design, and of a contemporary language with an aesthetic quality – in words, in the digital supports but also in the outdoors events unique organization choosing the more beautiful spots, with the better light and adapting to local features. The artwork in the landscape deep sense of meaning about this landscape was created through a shared process with inhabitants of choosing the right place, testing the scale with the plaster model, and progressively involving with streaming visits. Finally, the Menina dos Medos (Girl of the Fears) refers to a deep feeling of SF inhabitants: the delicacy and human fragility in the scale of the millenary landscape with an apparent contradiction of belonging to its place for immemorial times.
The process and the works that integrate the Cultural Landscape Trail are a model of inclusion in a physical and cultural dimension but also as a reference of local and global encompassment.
The key action of the project was the refurbishment of the abandoned trail in a process of citizen engagement. This process permitted the elder inhabitants to reconnect with memories and stories about the shepherds trails, and on the other hand involving the younger, staying during their holidays. Together, choices were done to improve the accessibility of this free-access new trekking trail.
The aim of inclusion was also the communication of tradition in a contemporary language, bridging the gap between heritage, digital media, and art creation.
This was achieved through interviews and its dissemination in the signage qrcodes, in the social media, and the video sharing. Also through each event design giving value to local features, traditions and signage and, finally, through the Menina dos Medos artwork embodying the place heritage values.
During this process, each creative achievement - artworks, videos, communication media - embodies solutions that synthesize erudite and popular culture, developing an equitable and intellectual access. The project stood for an inclusive communication methodology, developing design anchored in local values of heritage, shared by communities but taking a universal form and language for a global community.
Beyond the strategy of inclusion through the enlargement to different geographies and backgrounds with social networks and digital media, a fundamental approach was the empowerment of the women’s role in the village transformation. Most of the actions of refurbishment, environmental campaigns and social activities, are put together by women. Our commitment in creating the video about the 4 generations of women was to value and give voice to these women and to connect with former generations and the younger who visit the village.
The main added value of citizens engagement was the achievement of actions and works that are meaningful and significant for inhabitants, migrants that left the region and for visitors. This achievement is a consequence of community involvement in the co-definition of the activities, adapted planned actions and enriching settled works. Communities were involved through all stages of creation of the permanent artwork and the trail restoration. Municipalities and institutions were committed as partners in the survey of heritage values. Citizens and local associations were involved through conversations and interviews, as hosts of collective activities (embroidery workshop, water campaign, inauguration), as privileged audience of planned activities (workshops and live visits to the works).
These Live streams were a fundamental tool of place and artwork appropriation. The celebration of the delivery of artworks to the communities involved different formats according to local dynamics, including picnics, workshops with local artists, an open-air exhibition, walks with people's stories about symbolic places. Involving citizens, decision makers and technicians, with their aspirations and knowledge, led to the co-design of the project itself, co-creating the improvement plan, the brand image, and a trail with videos. Bringing together the municipality of SF and of the municipality of other side of the river, and environmental partners as Querqus and NaturTejo, to activities of water cleaning campaign and to the inauguration, gave a direct benefit to different target citizens groups and enlarged the perspectives of transformation of this region. Simultaneously, through these the processes of engagement through presential events, works but also through a constants dialogue in social media, a wide range of citizens - from local migrants, visitors and also the social media community -, were benefited by a change of perception value and meaning of rural places and landscapes.
The Cultural Landscape Trail was a local project promoted by the Municipality of Proença-a-Nova.
The municipality engagement in a territorial development through art and culture has been a political strategy which gained a new perspective with this project dimension of community involvement and participatory processes.
In fact, through the involvement of the local inhabitants, of the enlarged social media community, of the region migrants spread around the world, and of environmental entities, more activities were developed, actions were implemented in a deeper dimension and solutions for other regional issues were released.
The Municipality supported strategic programme of bringing together tradition and heritage with contemporary art and placemaking, due to its expertise and to the main concern of re-populating this region. In this context, the municipal team shared local contacts, historical and heritage references, and planning strategies.
The local inhabitants and the enlarged social media community, particulary migrants in different countries, engaged in sharing their own memories and cultural knowledge (e.g.,the interviews and the text about the village of the flyer is written by an inhabitant who returned as a former judge), but also promoting events and workshops. Craft ship workshops (tissue dye, embroidery), and the exhibition with the performance during the open-air inauguration were events totally recreated with these people support.
Engaging environmental entities as Quercus and NaturTejo amplified the impact of the project in a sustainable environmental development. In fact, the articulation between the inauguration of the trail and the artwork Menina dos Medos at the river border, with the inhabitants deep concern with the Ocreza river pollution, led us to invite these entities and celebrate an achievement raising awareness about a problem to solve in a near and urgent future.
The Cultural Landscape Trail was led by a collective formed by an office team (MAG) with a 25 years’ experience in working in territory transformation and particularly with expertise in placemaking and environmental development. With Sofia M. Aguiar, architect and artist, the collective enriched with a solid experience in crossing creative disciplines, programming workshops and exhibitions of more than 10 years curator at the FAC (Fábrica de Artes Cubano, in Havana). Mag’s team is a deeply committed with communication: in fact, the main legacy of Manuel Marques de Aguiar (1927-2015), urbanist and founder, is a methology of conducting the territory transformation. A method where the role of the team can be multiple – planner, mediator, mediator, designer – and the instruments chosen between a wide range – inquires, interviews, negotiation meetings, regulations, plans – but where the main feature is always to put people – their lives and aspirations - at the centre of the strategy.
This is the basis of this project: we approached the commission crossing the municipal strategy with planning and landscape design disciplines: site and landscape analyse, identification of natural and built environment features. Then, for a placemaking approach, we progressively analysed the population needs and aspirations, their lifestyles, and issues. To tackle activist environmental actions, we invited and support the Quescus and Natur Tejo teams.
For an effective communication we enlarged our team with instruments and knowledge of graphic design, web design, video, and social media. Within the crossing of these disciplines, we developed a deeply rich process of co-creation: the Menina dos Medos, the site, and the image design, were all part of processes of co-creation. In fact, as in the placemaking process, authorship is secondary and the main goal is creating an effective transformation and communication for concrete people through a place or through an artwork.
The Trail of “Menina dos Medos” carried out actions and works with the involvement of the inhabitants of the village of Sobral Fernando, which had as main impact the change of the perception, value and meaning of places and landscapes for these citizens, for others who visit and also for many who migrated.
The recovery of the abandoned trail and the communication of its heritage, through signage, 12 virtual guided heritage tours, and the work of art in the landscape, are visible results with an impact on the reconnection between people and the spirit of place. The unused shepherds' trail is now used for walking, in accordance with the village's urban habits.
The foundation of this community spirit is the change in the perception of a past of abandonment to a pride in one's place, which can be communicated through results such as the trail, tree planting, 4 streaming visits to the artwork production, stories on youtube, shared and discussed information on the flyers, and testimonies of the 4 generations of women who feel they belong to the village.
Each output is integrated in the local transformation of the global problem of abandonment of the rural world, the aging of population and the gap between inherited heritage and contemporary culture:
.Through the inauguration - with a hike, an outdoor tapestry exhibition with a Tibetan bowls performance with artists who have travelled and returned, with reinvented traditional cakes - reconnections between cultural dynamics and lifestyle are realized
.By valuing the inherited heritage in embroidery and fabric workshops, but also by recreating it through the contemporary work of art creation
.Through a Plan of intentions and improvements of SF that summarizes aspirations and ways of execution, projecting the indirect benefits of the project in the long term.
The trail launched the anchor for the development of new sustainable and rooted tourism products, but also a method of transforming the disappearing rural world
In face of the enormous challenge of this at-risk territory, anticipating green deal delivery and post-pandemic changes, the project proposes nonconventional approaches to art exhibition and cultural programmes, crossing with methodologies of community development and placemaking.
The trail, artwork and digital contents are visible outputs which communicate this innovative method but also, a cutting-edge execution tackling the reconnection between heritage valorisation and contemporary creation, settling original patterns of outdoor, presential, hybrid and digital of community involvement and handling answers to cross-cutting issues with a long-term strategy.
Our commitment with an environmental strategy empowered the village water cleaning campaign (Ocreza river), with Ambiental partners (Quercus and NaturTejo) and municipalities (present at the inauguration). Women’s role is tackled in this crossing approach, promoting the video about four generations of women.
Contemporary complexion of global issues - energy transition, environmental solutions, the gap between disappearing heritage an contemporary lifestyle, women’s role in society, rural depopulation, aging populations – led us to a local engaged approach of innovative bottom-up method, cutting across disciplines from art, culture, planning and social work. Each action was led with community participatory processes structured to be replicable:
.Local recollection of values with the local community and its embodiment in an illustrated Plan of intentions
.Participation in social events and communication of its intrinsic cultural values (local gastronomy and handcrafts)
.Sharing of creative processes through streaming visits and talks
The replicability of this instruments and method is enhanced by our hybrid approach of each action: the pandemic evinced the urgency of internet access and the value of close to nature living fostering our commitment with open-air programmes crossing with digital activities.
To achieve the project objectives, a regaining of meaning and connection between citizens and this region, we developed a methodology supported in 3 pillars with tested tools:
. The contemporary creation approach was rooted in a deep analysis of place characteristics – light, sensations, environmental qualities, geographical and built environment features – and the pursuit of a transformation with an aesthetic impact and a meaning for those that enjoy or use that place.
. Creation was a mean to recreate and communicate heritage with quality design and composition, forms and images that value and meaning.
. Placemaking and environmental development, was implemented by a cross disciplinary approach – social, planning, cultural, environment – based in an in-progress open programme – defined with local communities – and a structured long-term strategy hierarchized with the municipal entity.
. The environmental approach was rooted in natural features potentialities and problems analyses, crossing with local problems and aspirations and with environmental EU strategies and with EU's commitment to a vision for rural areas.
. The citizen’s engagement , the guiding thread of this project, was implemented by an operational analysis, the development of needed actions, and interventions that empowered local communities and agents of transformation. This involvement and communication with older, younger, and enlarged digital communities, also promotes a long-term appropriation; on the other hand, engagement and digital communication multiplies the local and global dimension of the project.
. Our method of engagement was structured by local agents analysis with visits and interviews, participation or organization of local events or workshops, the involvement in the creation processes through streaming visits, flyers presentation, social media dialogue in all stages, and the proposal of new approaches or solutions for issues or aspirations.
This project is a pilot case of transformation of territories at risk due to wildfires and abandonment and a model for new experiences in rural areas.
It is a pilot case of global priorities – Green Deal and Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas – replicable in other at-risk territories. Replicable in areas with issues arising from extreme low-density areas (south Europe countries, Bulgaria, Norway), wildfires high risk areas (Southern Europe Mediterranean Countries, Canada, Australia), and climate change in-danger zones (fires, drought, floods, snowbreak) and also rural areas searching for new models of rural development.
Replicability stems from the objectives and methodology to the initial question reconsidered in each new area: how to invert the destiny of a territory?
The reformulation of objectives and methodology should consider the 3 project pillars with tested tools and documentation on the website:
. Contemporary Creation as a tool for heritage preservation and valorisation. This approach was tested, and its theoretical body developed through articles (Laura Castro and Nuno Grande) and debates (Experimenta Paisagem Encounters). The creation should be supported by heritage analysis an local interviews. The creation by collectives and teams may enrich this process.
. The territorial transformation of natural and cultural landscape applied in a perspective of sustainable development, in a transdisciplinary way. This approach should implement visible outputs such as refurbishments and new works that integrate local heritage and, at the same time, integrate a long-term strategy articulated with the political entity.
. The involvement of communities as the guiding thread of transformation projects guarantees an operational analysis, and the empowerment of communities and agents of transformation. The local/global dimension is achieved through the digitization of this process, in a continuous face-to-face/digital articulation, local/online tools.
The Cultural Landscape Trail implements local solutions that help to deliver the European Green Deal with tangible changes on the ground that fosters EU long-term vision for rural areas. This pilot project establishes interconnected transformations of new forms of questioning our perspectives and mind-set around the core values of aesthetics, sustainability, and inclusion. The strategy to displace contemporary art and culture from traditional institutions to open air, to face burned landscapes and to meet depopulated territories, constituted a challenge of construction of an anti-destiny landscape. The method and actions questioned mainstream models, focusing on integrated disciplinary solutions, promoting perspectives on how to inhabit the rural world with urban experiences, beyond agriculture, farming, and forestry. The emerging opportunities of digital transition and Green Deal were fostered by covid 19 pandemic and contributed to identify means to improve rural quality of life, to interconnected with global communities, and to foster environmental quality living. Transformations were carried out in terms of the environment, enabling innovation:
. Through actions that enhance endogenous resources (gastronomy, trails in the landscape, public spaces in villages)
. Campaigning to clean water lines (Ocreza river), the improvement of burnt areas, and internet access, crossing digital media and face-to-face participation
. Supporting inclusion of environmental partners networks (Quercus, Naturtejo)
A project of exemplary interconnected transformations on the ground,
.Each intervention is symbolic of a transformation opportunity and of heritage valorisation. .Each place experience was enhanced through environmental quality and sensorial aesthetic strengthen.
.Social local dynamics were the central force of co-created solutions and future construction of a sustainable living with nature, urban habits through digital community enlargement
