PROJECTS

Portel opened its newest cultural and tourist landmark, The Interactive Montado Center, a space designed to reveal the environmental, economic and social dimensions of the Montado while highlighting the global relevance of this unique ecosystem. The center offers an immersive technological journey through the richness and biodiversity of the Montado — a living landscape where cork oak forests embrace the vast waters of Alqueva. Visitors are invited to explore the Montado in P

AZUL40 is an artistic and environmental intervention developed for the Blue Flag Programme in Portel, using the art of transformation as a tool for ecological awareness. The project begins with the collection of waste in schools of Portel, which is then used to create suspended sculptures and organic installations conceived from transformed objects. The pieces evoke reef colonies, organic membranes, and symbiotic structures, functioning as visual metaphors for the fragility a

Students from the D. João Primary School in Portel painted waste collected at the school during a collection campaign. These objects will be reorganized into fishing nets to be exhibited along the beaches of Portel - bringing the spirit of the waterways into the heart of the community and reminding us that protecting our aquatic ecosystems is a shared responsability.

This year the artist takes part in the Environmental Education Activities of the Blue Flag Programme in Portel, Alentejo, celebrating four decades of commitment to environmental quality, sustainability, and coastal protection. The theme for 2026 — “40 Things from Your Beach You Want to See in 40 Years” — invites communities to look ahead and imagine which natural, cultural, and emotional elements they hope to preserve for the future. Through artistic interpretation and public

A new artistic–scientific collaboration between the artist and INESC TEC in Porto (PT), one of Portugal’s leading research institutes in technology and engineering, explores how human presence and AI can coexist within experimental research environments. "The Hard-Boiled Paradox" develops a dynamic system in which human and non‑human processes continuously respond to one another in real time, creating shifting conditions for observation, interaction, and emergent behaviour. T

These sessions invite participants into a sensory and expressive exploration of color and materiality. Inspired by artists who work with thick layers of paint and apply pure color directly onto the canvas, it focuses on freeing the gesture, embracing spontaneity, and cultivating a state of presence, intuition, and visual pleasure. Rather than academic rules, the emphasis is on experiencing color as a living substance and allowing painting to emerge from movement, emotion, and

An Exploration of Trash inspects the paradox of contemporary consumer society: a system driven by constant acquisition, where objects are rapidly replaced and excess becomes inevitable. The exhibition questions: what happens to what is left behind? what happens to what is discarded, forgotten, or deemed no longer useful? Rather than treating waste as an endpoint, the artist approaches it as a site of possibility. Materials displaced by newer purchases — cardboard, paper, gl

Concepts, techniques, and materiality behind An Exploration of Trash solo exhibition at the Espinho Municipal Museum. On Nova Radio Station GPS Program, Isa Magalhães shared the genesis of the exhibition and the Lab's creative process.

Isa Magalhães is interviewed by journalist Sónia Lobo Silva about the exhibition An Exploration of Trash . The artist talks about her project at the Espinho Municipal Museum. Live on RTP (National TV), offering a first glimpse of the artist solo exhibition. Watch on YouTube

Isa Magalhães is interviewed for RTP1 regarding the exhibition An Exploration of Trash . The artist discusses the urgency of the theme and art's role in social and environmental awareness. Listen to the full interview here: