Mastro Sol

Within the context of the Art Explora Festival presented at Cascais Marina, the work establishes a relationship with the way the festival itself arrives in the city: coming from the sea, settling alongside the harbour, and creating a temporary presence in the public realm. Mastro Sol extends this movement onto land, transforming the marina area into a meeting point for visitors, participants, and local residents.

The mastro works simultaneously as a landmark and a call to gather. Through its verticality, it marks a point in space and creates a shared reference. Around it unfolds a collective action that brings the artistic installation closer to vernacular cultures of celebration, where the knowledge of the hands is an essential part of the shared experience.

The image of the sun is the central reference of the work—not only as a visual form, but as an idea associated with cycles, celebration, and collective vital energy. The sun is understood as a unifying presence: that which brings people together, marks rhythms, and accompanies communal practices linked to festivity, food, and encounter.

The process begins in workshops, where participants create edible biscuit flags from dough. The act of kneading and shaping the dough transforms an everyday material into a sculptural element, bringing culinary practice closer to artistic practice. Each flag retains the unique imprint of its maker. Once baked, the pieces are suspended from the mastro structure.

The activation of the work takes place in collaboration with the group Zarabatana, whose sonic presence expands the moment in which the biscuit flags can be harvested and shared. This transitory dimension is fundamental to the artwork: what has been collectively built is transformed through the act of eating what has been collectively made.

By bringing people together around a shared action, Mastro Sol proposes an experience situated between installation, collective creation, and celebration.