A CÉU ABERTO

“A Céu Aberto” is a temporary installation created from deactivated Iron Mines located in Torre de Moncorvo (GPS: 41.19517, -6.95887 (Cabeço da Mua); 41.18141, -6.95896 (Carvalhosa), the largest iron deposit in Portugal and one of the largest in Europe. The Roboredo mountain range and adjacent lands have an estimated reserve of 600 million tons, which has been exploited since the Iron Age and during the Roman period.

In the '50s and ´60s, it was the largest employer in the region, employing 1500 miners, but in '80s the mines were deactivated. After its closure 40 years ago, the lack of jobs and other alternatives to retain the population, the younger migrated and the desertification grew in Moncorvo. Nowadays the population still lives between the memory of the mines and the expectation of reopening mining exploration.

“A Céu Aberto” is a posters collages, installed in a temporary building by Nuno Pimenta near “Museu do Ferro/Iron Museum” in Torre de Moncorvo. It was created from fieldwork made in Torre de Moncorvo, through collecting testimonies from old mine workers and their families, documentation of private archives, photographs of the mine, documents from the “Museu do Ferro/Iron Museum” and “Núcleo de Fotografias do Alto Douro/ The Alto Douro Photography Nucleus”.

A Céu Aberto Mock-up 2016-17