SEASON 2026
In 2026, the São Domingos Mine will once again be a place for meeting, creation, and participation.
Between April and June, the MALACATE project returns to the territory with a new season of artistic activities culminating in the premiere of CALOR , a community performance created by the artistic structure MEIO DO MATO in close collaboration with the community of Mina de S. Domingos.
The result of a creative process developed over several months with the inhabitants of Mina, CALOR invites the public to explore the territory and discover the stories, memories, affections, and imaginaries that inhabit this unique place. The show premieres on June 11, 12, and 13, transforming Mina de S. Domingos into a living stage built by those who know it, live in it, and reinvent it every day.
The 2026 program also includes the VAGABUNDAS project – Mercedes Blasco Artistic Residencies, which hosts two artists in residence during the month of April, reinforcing MALACATE's commitment to artistic experimentation, contemporary creation, and connection to the territory.
In September, the program expands with OLVIDAR , a participatory project developed by MALVADA Associação Artística in collaboration with the MALACATE Project. Created by the duo Ana Luena & José Miguel Soares, the project takes place between September 5th and 24th at Musical, through artistic residencies, moments of dialogue and rehearsals with the local community. It explores forgetting as a tool for transformation and creative force, culminating in the presentation of a performance-installation as part of the Art Non Stop Festival, promoted by the Mértola City Council.
Created in 2021 by the Cepa Torta Company, in partnership with the Municipality of Mértola, MALACATE was born as a multidisciplinary artistic intervention project for the São Domingos Mine, affirming art as a tool for encounter between artists, community and territory. Since then, it has been mobilizing inhabitants, associations and local institutions around participatory creation processes that intersect memory, heritage, landscape and future.
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SYNOPSIS
In the São Domingos mine, the warmth doesn't just come from the earth or the sun. It's also felt in the darkness, in the resilience, in people's daily lives, at the table, in stories and in affection.
CALOR is a performance-journey created by MEIO DO MATO with and for the community of Mina de S. Domingos, inviting the public to traverse the territory and experience it as a living, affective, and shared matter.
Conceived from the experiences, memories, and relationships that permeate this unique place, the performance transforms the Mine into a meeting space between past and present, between inhabitants and visitors, between reality and imagination. Throughout the performance, artists and community participants occupy different spaces within the Mine, summoning stories, gestures, and landscapes that reveal new ways of seeing and inhabiting the territory.
More than a show, CALOR is a collective experience built from listening, sharing, and community creation. An invitation to explore the São Domingos Mine through the people who live there and the memories that continue to shape its future.
ABOUT THE CREATION
CALOR is the result of a community-based creative process developed over several months by the artistic structure MEIO DO MATO, selected by the MALACATE Council following the MALACATE 2025 Artistic Residency.
Between rehearsals, conversations, walks, workshops and informal gatherings, dozens of inhabitants of Mina de S. Domingos participated in the creation of this artwork, contributing with memories, stories, ideas and presence.
The show is the result of this collective work and the conviction that is at the origin of MALACATE: that art can be a space for encounter, participation and shared imagination.
TECHNICAL AND ARTISTIC CREDITS
Created by: MEIO DO MATO - Alice Duarte, Alex Moniz and Beatriz Marques Dias
Co-creation and Interpretation: Alice Duarte and Beatriz Marques Dias with Ana Luísa Souza Marques, Ana Luísa Rodrigues Gomes dos Santos Martins, Camila Gonçalves da Silva Duarte, Conceição Maria Ferreira, Isabel Cristina Campos Seabra Ferreira, João Paulos, José Pereira Gonçalves Magro Batista, Maria dos Anjos Pires Branco Gonçalves, Maria Carolina Bentes da Graça Álvaro, Maria Custódia Matias Lampreia, Maria de Fátima Cavaco dos Santos, Maria João Pereira Diogo Paulos, Nuno Pereira Gonçalves Martins, Pedro Henrique Souza Marques, Reinaldo Seno Batista, Rosa Maria Vaz Teixeira Almeida Silva, Samuel Filipe Faleiro Castanho, Santiago Silva Seno, Sara Luís, Vera Martins
Musical Composition: Alex Moniz
Set and Costume Design: Sara Leme
Assistance: Joaquim Chora
Age Classification: 6+
TEAM MALACATE
Artistic direction: Inês Achado and Miguel Maia
Local Production and Mediation: Filipe Carvalho
Technical Direction: Filipe Abreu
Communication: Sónia Godinho
Press Office: Mafalda Simões
Audiovisual recording: Nuno Sequeira (Mértola Municipal Council)
Technical coordination: João David (Mértola Municipal Council)
Support for local mediation: Sara Ribeiro (Serrão Martins Foundation)
Support for local production: Carla Narciso (Mértola City Council)
FINANCING
The Malacate project is promoted by Companhia Cepa Torta and co-produced by the Mértola City Council.
SUPPORT AND PARTNERSHIPS
Serrão Martins Foundation, Mértola Senior University, São Domingos Mine Choir
SPECIAL THANKS
ALSUD, CASA DE PASTO A TABERNA, PENSÃO SÃO DOMINGOS, SÃO DOMINGOS FUTEBOL CLUBE, MINA de SÃO DOMINGOS PRIMARY SCHOOL Teachers, Blé Passarinho, Joaquim Chora, José Pereira, Manuel Marques, Nádia Torres, Sara Ribeiro, Virgílio Lopes, Vítor Branco e a toda a Comunidade da Mina de São Domingos que de alguma forma contribuiu para a construção destes espetáculo.
SYNOPSIS
A village has disappeared in Portugal. It's called Aldeia do Cobre, it was founded in 1854, and it was last seen carrying with it a railway, a tunnel, a fish, and a book entitled "We are the oblivion that we will be."
The authorities are investigating. Reports, testimonies, and successive updates on the case are emerging. Among the hypotheses being considered is an unexpected word: ghosting. Did the village decide to abruptly cut off communication with everyone, disappear without explanation, and transform itself into a ghost? Or can a place disappear in another way, when those who inhabited it cease to be there?
The disappearance of this village is part of a broader phenomenon affecting many inland areas of the country, where the continued loss of population, services, and ways of life is leaving territories increasingly empty.
Between humor, absurdity, and melancholy, a village becomes the center of an investigation into who disappears from whom, what remains, and to what extent disappearing can also be a way of refusing to be forgotten.
ABOUT THE OLVIDAR PROJECT
In OLVIDAR, the regenerative capacity of forgetting is explored. Forgetting thus emerges not as a flaw or a void, but as a space of opportunity. At the intersection of theatre, performance, photography, video and music, the project works on reconstruction and recreation based on the relationships between presence and absence, transforming that which may have disappeared.
Through dialogue with territories and communities affected by processes of erasure or profound transformation, narratives are constructed that intersect memories and zones of forgetting. The collection of elements and the processes of shared creation transform silences, absences, and experiences into visual, sound, and scenic material, giving rise to a fragmented and permeable dramaturgy, made of subtle presences, traces, and shadowy areas.
The creation stems from the idea that remembering is a selective act and that forgetting can also be a gesture of resistance, a form of defense against the excess of events or the imposition of dominant narratives.
The process is organized into immersive research and creation residencies, the OLVIDAR zones, developed in a participatory manner in different territories. Among these zones are Aldeia da Luz, in Mourão, and Mina de São Domingos, in Mértola. The project also extends to Braga, in partnership with ATLAS – the Cultural Mediation Program of the Municipality of Braga.
Through a network of partnerships and collaborations, OLVIDAR connects different contexts, intersecting artistic research, creation, and community participation.
ABOUT THE PROCESS AT THE SÃO DOMINGOS MINE
At the São Domingos Mine, OLVIDAR unfolds through on-site artistic residencies. Throughout September, the team engages with the territory through moments of dialogue and collection, idea labs, rehearsals, and experiments developed in collaboration with the local community.
Initially, community members are invited to share, collect, and create materials using photography, video, and audio devices, which are then processed and incorporated into the artistic and dramaturgical construction of the performance-installation. In parallel, theater rehearsals are held with community members who wish to participate in the final performance.
In conjunction with the work carried out in the territory, the process continues in Évora, headquarters of Malvada and base for the development and continuity of the project. This phase focuses on defining the dramaturgical script, editing and organizing the collected materials, video and sound post-production, musical composition, as well as the creation of stage materials and wardrobe elements.
Later in September, the team returns to the São Domingos Mine for a new residency phase dedicated to setup and rehearsals. This stage culminates in an open presentation of the performance-installation, involving members of the local community on stage and incorporating materials and experiences produced throughout the residencies.
Ana Luena & José Miguel Soares are responsible for the creation and direction, accompanied by performers Carolina Cardoso Faias and Júlia Carlota, and members of the local community, with an original text by Filipa Leal, music and live performance by Zé Peps, and artistic collaboration from Miguel Maia in writing the lyrics for the song and other materials, and from Celina da Piedade and Ana Santos in composing the music for the song.
Working within the community is the focus of the Malacate Project's annual CORPO MINA initiative, part of the Art Non Stop Festival organized by the Mértola City Council, fostering contact and engagement among diverse community participants.
CALENDAR
Between September 5th and 24th - Artistic Residencies | Performance-Installation - Musical
September 5-9
Research and artistic creation residency
Rehearsals, 4pm - 7pm
September 20-24
Assembly and presentation residency
Rehearsals, 4pm - 7pm
September 24th
Presentation of performance-installation, 9 PM
More information: producao.malacate@cepatorta.org / 924 744 056
TECHNICAL AND ARTISTIC CREDITS
Creation, performance and installation by ANA LUENA & JOSÉ MIGUEL SOARES
Original text by FILIPA LEAL
Music and performance by ZÉ PEPS
Photography and video by José Miguel Soares
Staging by Ana Luena
Interpretation and co-creation: CAROLINA CARDOSO FAIAS, JÚLIA CARLOTA and MEMBERS OF THE SÃO DOMINGOS MINE COMMUNITY, SÃO DOMINGOS MINE CHOIR
Letter and lyrics of the fashion MIGUEL MAIA
Musical composition by CELINA DA PIEDADE and ANA SANTOS
Photography and video assistance [FCT – IEFP] MIGUEL VARELA
Executive Production Assistance GUILHERME DIAS
Administrative and Communication Assistance JOANA XAVIER
Graphic design by JOANA AREAL
Co-production in residence THE SPACE OF TIME
Co-financing by IEFP, PEOPLE 2030, PORTUGAL 2030 and the EUROPEAN UNION
Support from the Évora City Council and the Canaviais Parish Council.
Local partnership COMPANHIA CEPA TORTA / PROJETO MALACATE
Artistic direction: Malacate Project, INÊS ACHANDO and MIGUEL MAIA
Executive Production Project Malacate BEATRIZ SOUSA
Production Direction Cepa Torta PAULA SILVA
Communication Cepa Torta SÓNIA GODINHO
Local support: Mértola Municipal Council, Serrão Martins Foundation, São Domingos Mine Choir.
Production MALVADA ARTISTIC ASSOCIATION
MALVADA ASSOCIAÇÃO ARTÍSTICA and COMPANHIA CEPA TORTA are structures funded by the PORTUGUESE REPUBLIC – CULTURE, YOUTH AND SPORT / DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR THE ARTS
PROGRAM 2026
The Malacate project is promoted by Companhia Cepa Torta and co-produced by the Mértola City Council.