Unidos venceremos!: A transdisciplinary approach to participatory public sculpture in Canal Caveira, Portugal

Abstract

This article explores a transdisciplinary approach to participatory public sculpture, focusing on the project Unidos Venceremos! – Arte e Comunidade em Debate as a case study. This project was developed in the village of Canal Caveira, in the municipality of Grândola, Portugal, in 2024, and it started as a proposal from the municipality to engage the local population in a participatory process, with the purpose of creating a monument to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Portuguese 25th of April Revolution. A multidisciplinary team - composed by artists, anthropologists, architects - built the mediation process and invited the local population for a ‘collective construction’ project. The current case study explores the citizen’s involvement in public space reconfiguration through a process where the co-creation of a public artwork transcends its aesthetic and symbolic purpose, integrating functionality and the endogenous flora of the territory, ultimately nurturing an ecological intervention into the shared space. The article focuses on concrete examples how transdisciplinary collaboration among mediators allowed the project to evolve beyond its initial premises. By dissolving rather than reinforcing disciplinary boundaries - and thus avoiding the confinement of the artwork within a specific disciplinary category - this transdisciplinary process placed citizen agency at the core of decision-making, shaping a more inclusive transformation of public space.