A Participatory Public Sculpture

Critical Reflections from a Transdisciplinary Case Study in Canal Caveira, Portugal

Authors

  • Sergio Vicente CIEBA https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1678-9371
  • Margarida Alves CIEBA — Centro de Investigação em Belas Artes
  • Filipa Baptista CIEBA — Centro de Investigação em Belas Artes

Keywords:

Participatory Public Art, Public Sculpture, Transdisciplinary, Socially Engaged Art, Co-creation

Abstract

This article aims to present the participatory public art project “Unidos Venceremos! Arte e Comunidade em Debate”, developed in Canal Caveira, Portugal, through a description of the working sessions, followed by a critical reflection that situates this case study within international debates on the topic, discussing both the potential and limitations of the project, and offering insights that may inform future practices. The project’s outcome, a public sculpture, emerges as the materialization of a transdisciplinary co-creation process, shaped by the specific needs expressed by the local community.

Author Biographies

  • Margarida Alves, CIEBA — Centro de Investigação em Belas Artes
    Early Career Researcher, CIEBA FBAUL, Phd Fine Arts, Sculpture, member of EMERGING art project, a R&D exploratory project funded by FCT that aims to characterize the academic portuguese artistic research and create a collection of Art of the higher education artistic research in Portugal; member of CAPHE - Communities and Artistic Participation in Hybrid Environments, funded by Horizon Europe Program under grant agreement nr 101086391.
  • Filipa Baptista, CIEBA — Centro de Investigação em Belas Artes
    Researcher CIEBA FBAUL, is a multidisciplinary artist, with a master's degree in Sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon. She was a research fellow in the scope of Projects and Institutions by (FCT&Cieba 2024).Lecturer at the Public Art Journal with the "CommunicationUnited We Win! Art and Community in Debate - Methodologies for the constructionof a Participatory Sculpture"

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Published

02-07-2025

Issue

Vol. 74 No. 1 (2025): Hybrid Landscapes: Experiencing Things, Mapping Practices, Re-construing Ecologies of Entangled Environments

Section

Articles

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