Convento da Terra • Art & Culture Programme
the art & culture programme for Torrão
"Torrão LAB establishes a long-term framework for regenerative rural development, grounded in place and shaped through practice. Within this vision, Convento da Terra emerges as the cultural and civic expression of the project. Together, they articulate a model where territory, community, and creativity converge to imagine and build sustainable futures."
intro
Convento da Terra is the artistic and cultural hub of the ecosystem promoted by Foundation DaST in Torrão, Alcácer do Sal, Portugal. Conceived as a living cultural platform, it is grounded in local socio-cultural identity, and unfolds through a series of artistic, pedagogical, and community-based actions.
Since May 2023, “Convento da Terra” has spearheaded activities that transcend traditional administrative, political, and cultural boundaries. This rekindling of communal ties helps to revitalize the social fabric and offers real-time responses to the collective aspirations of citizens. Through arts and culture Torrão emerges as a catalyst for a new regional dynamism, transcending physical and historical confines.
The artistic programme of the village offers a cultural experience focused on conserving and amplifying local identity and traditions. Using different themes to engage various audiences, it emphasizes the importance of aesthetics, blending the uniqueness of the territory with creative expressions. Torrão aims to be a unique cultural destination, using art to highlight its distinct character and interactions.
Following principles of sustainability and resilience, Torrão promotes a holistic and inclusive approach to cultural development. This approach encourages community participation and co-creation, helping to shape the village cultural growth.
Convento da Terra transforms Torrão and its surroundings into a space for reflection, strategy, action, and celebration, bringing new energy to the village and unlocking its potential. With its rich history and aspirations, Torrão is not just a place on the map but a vibrant cultural hub in the Alentejo region.
At its core, Convento da Terra is driven by a mission to cultivate a sustainable, nature-positive society within the framework of post-growth principles. This initiative is a testament to the commitment to preserve local heritage, enhance traditional knowledge, and promote holistic restoration.
why Torrão
Torrão LAB establishes a long-term framework for regenerative rural development, grounded in place and shaped through practice. Within this vision, Convento da Terra emerges as the cultural and civic expression of the project. Together, they articulate a model where territory, community, and creativity converge to imagine and build sustainable futures.
Ideal scale for experimentation and impact
- The village offers an ideal critical scale for pilot projects and holistic regeneration.
- It enables placemaking strategies that actively involve the local community.
- Supports academic experimentation and the development of models focused on resilience, sustainability, and creative citizenship.
Rich natural and cultural landscape
- A unique balance between ecological systems and human presence.
- Landscapes include cork oak forests (montado), olive groves, rivers, and water bodies.
- Strong architectural and social heritage shaped over centuries.
- Positions Torrão as a destination for slow, ecological, and creative tourism.
Abundance of natural resources
- High levels of sunlight and access to water support climate resilience.
- Enables regenerative agriculture, renewable energy, passive construction, and bioarchitecture.
- Encourages the use of local materials and traditional knowledge systems.
Strategic location and connectivity
- Located between Lisbon, Évora, and Beja, with proximity to Tróia and Comporta.
- Historically a point of convergence, supporting exchange and mobility.
- Facilitates sustainable entrepreneurship and collaborative networks.
Digital infrastructure and global relevance
- 5G connectivity and reliable digital access.
- Attracts international students, researchers, and practitioners.
- Supports remote work, innovation, and knowledge exchange.
Convento da Terra within Torrão LAB
- Functions as a living space where culture, research, and community intersect.
- Translates the vision of Torrão LAB into practice through artistic production and educational programmes.
- Grounds regenerative thinking in real, place-based experiences.
These themes form the foundational framework for the annual programming of Convento da Terra. Each activity, residency, and event is carefully designed to respond to the territory’s ecological, cultural, and social dynamics, translating the principles of Torrão LAB into lived, collective experiences. Throughout the year, the programme unfolds as a continuous dialogue between research, creation, and community engagement.
about the cultural framework
"The cultural framework Convento da Terra, as a local platform fostering cultural interaction, creativity, and co-creation, exemplifies our commitment to nurturing cultural exchange and creativity."
community and cultural commitment
We believe in fostering connections through culture to create a sustainable, nature-positive society within the concept of post-growth. Through dialogue and celebration of local identity, cultural communication enhances understanding, promotes inclusivity, and fosters a profound sense of belonging.
We recognize the transformative power of cultural communication in shaping and strengthening our community, serving as a vital tool in allowing the community to reflect on its identity, reinvent its character, and adapt to the evolving dynamics of urban life. The cultural framework Convento da Terra, as a local platform fostering cultural interaction, creativity, and co-creation, exemplifies our commitment to nurturing cultural exchange and creativity. From artistic workshops to exhibitions, each initiative serves as a platform for co-criation, expression and engagement.
This vibrant cultural exchange extends beyond the local community, with the goal of strategic partnerships bringing cultural and academic organizations from countries such as Norway, China, France, Canada, and Italy to Torrão. These collaborations seek to enrich the cultural landscape and serve as a testament to our commitment to fostering cross-cultural dialogue and understanding. Robust civic engagement and cooperation among local and global entities, Torrão fosters a sense of shared identity and purpose. Mobility, accessibility, and connectivity serve as cornerstones of this integrative approach, fostering balance and inclusivity.
vision
To become a leading cultural platform for the regeneration of rural territories like Torrão, where art, memory, tradition, and community participation converge to inspire new formats of living, creating, and caring, shaping a more conscious, connected, and inclusive future.
mission
To activate, value, and regenerate the cultural and social life of Torrão through artistic creation, community engagement, and shared memory, promoting a sustainable future, rooted in the local territory assets and identity, and open to the world.
Since its launch in May 2023, Convento da Terra has established itself as a dynamic cultural framework that transcends traditional administrative, political and territorial boundaries. It serves as a space for critical reflection, celebration, and creative experimentation, bridging art, ecology, and communal life in ways that revitalise the local social fabric and respond directly to collective aspirations.
In this setting, Torrão is not simply a geographic site, it becomes a vibrant cultural destination and a catalyst for regional transformation through the language of art, memory, and place.
Under the stewardship of Convento da Terra, the cultural initiatives shine a spotlight on community engagement and creativity.
Key dimensions:
- Intergenerational social engagement
- Artistic and creative education
- Contemporary creation rooted local assets and identity of the territory
- Intercultural dialogue
As an integral project of Foundation DaST, it promotes cultural life as a means of encounter, reflection, and debate.
pillars & vectors
The key vectors that inform both its curatorial direction and its social function are:
- Territory, Memory and Identity: Engaging the specificities of place, history, and local knowledge as creative catalysts.
- Artistic Research and Interdisciplinary Creation: Supporting residencies and practices that respond to environmental, social and cultural demands.
- Community Participation and Co-Creation: Placing local voices and collaborative processes at the centre of cultural production.
- Aesthetics and The Land: Embracing beauty and expression as tools for re-signifying space, experience, and belonging.
- Education and Transmission: Offering multi-generational and transdisciplinary spaces for learning, mentorship and knowledge sharing.
- Post-growth and Ecological Transformation: Anchoring all activities in sustainable, circular and care-based methodologies.
relationship summary
To better understand how Convento da Terra sits within the Torrão LAB / Foundation DaST framework:
1. Foundation DaST: Vision, strategy, oversight, structure
2. Torrão Lab: Research, local application, integrated regeneration
3. Convento da Terra: Cultural activation, community expression, promotion
Together, these three dimensions form the basis for a replicable model for rural regeneration, where culture, care for the territory, and socio-economic innovation work in synergy.
AQUI Space - Convento da Terra
"Within AQUI, time is activated through programming that invites participation, reflection, and collective experience, from exhibitions and talks to screenings, workshops, and informal gatherings that unfold organically."
AQUI is the core physical and symbolic centre of Convento da Terra, a space where the programme becomes tangible and immediate. It operates as a site of encounter, where artistic practice, research, and community presence converge in a shared environment. Within AQUI, time is activated through programming that invites participation, reflection, and collective experience, from exhibitions and talks to screenings, workshops, and informal gatherings that unfold organically.
Rather than functioning as a traditional cultural venue, AQUI is conceived as an open and adaptive platform. It responds to the rhythms of the territory and to the people who inhabit or pass through it, allowing for a fluid exchange between local knowledge and external perspectives. Artists, researchers, students, and residents are not positioned as separate audiences, but as co-present contributors to an evolving narrative that is continuously shaped through interaction.
The space also serves as a testing ground for ideas that emerge from Torrão LAB, translating abstract concepts into lived experiences. Here, the relationship between ecology, culture, and society is explored through practice, making visible the connections between place, memory, and future possibility. It is a space where experimentation is not only encouraged but necessary, allowing new forms of thinking and making to be explored in direct dialogue with the territory.
AQUI exists to anchor the programme in a shared physical reality, creating a point of access and engagement for the community and its visitors. Its purpose is to give form to the cultural dimension of Torrão LAB, ensuring that the project remains grounded in lived experience, collective participation, and the continuous activation of the territory through art and dialogue.
ALI Space - Convento da Terra
"ALI reinforces the idea that regeneration is not confined to singular sites but is a process that unfolds across multiple layers of the territory. It creates continuity between the visible and the invisible, the formal and the informal, ensuring that the impact of the programme is both embedded and sustained over time."
ALI emerges as an extension of AQUI, expanding the reach of Convento da Terra into the fabric of the village itself. It recognises that culture does not reside solely within designated spaces, but is embedded in everyday life, in local practices, and in the relationships that define a community. Through ALI, the programme moves outward, activating streets, buildings, landscapes, and social contexts as sites of cultural production and engagement.
This dimension operates through collaboration and proximity. It builds relationships with local institutions, associations, businesses, and residents, creating opportunities for shared initiatives that integrate artistic and cultural practices into existing structures. Rather than imposing external frameworks, ALI works through listening, adaptation, and co-creation, ensuring that each intervention is responsive to the specificities of the territory and its people.
ALI also plays a crucial role in dissolving the boundaries between institution and community. By decentralising the programme, it allows culture to circulate more freely, reaching audiences who might not otherwise engage with formal cultural spaces. It fosters a sense of collective ownership, where the village itself becomes an active participant in the shaping of its cultural landscape.
Through this distributed approach, ALI reinforces the idea that regeneration is not confined to singular sites but is a process that unfolds across multiple layers of the territory. It creates continuity between the visible and the invisible, the formal and the informal, ensuring that the impact of the programme is both embedded and sustained over time.
Emerging as the setting point for residencies of all kinds, ALI was created to extend the cultural and regenerative work of Convento da Terra into the everyday life of Torrão. Its purpose is to integrate the programme within the social and spatial fabric of the village, strengthening community bonds and ensuring that Torrão LAB operates as a truly participatory and place-based initiative.
ACOLÁ Space - Convento da Terra
"The sole function and purpose of the ACOLÁ space is to mainly acknowledge that while the project is deeply rooted in a specific place, it is also part of a wider network of ideas, practices, and challenges that transcend geographical boundaries."
ACOLÁ represents the outward projection of Convento da Terra, connecting the local realities of Torrão with broader regional, national, and international contexts. It acknowledges that while the project is deeply rooted in a specific place, it is also part of a wider network of ideas, practices, and challenges that transcend geographical boundaries.
Through ACOLÁ, the programme engages with external institutions, universities, cultural organisations, and independent practitioners, creating pathways for exchange and collaboration. Residencies, research initiatives, and partnerships allow knowledge to circulate between contexts, bringing new perspectives into Torrão while sharing the insights generated within it with a wider audience.
This dimension operates across scales, bridging local experience with global discourse. It enables the project to remain open, dynamic, and responsive, avoiding isolation while maintaining its grounding in place. By connecting with diverse contexts, ACOLÁ enriches the programme, introducing new methodologies, questions, and approaches that contribute to its ongoing evolution.
ACOLÁ also plays a critical role in positioning Torrão LAB within contemporary conversations on sustainability, culture, and territorial regeneration. It allows the project to act as both a receiver and a contributor of knowledge, reinforcing its relevance beyond its immediate context.
