A call for proposals launched at the end of 2024 challenged Braga’s community of artists, architects and designers to submit artistic creations that dialogue with the specificities of the city’s first-generation shopping centres.
Five proposals were selected which, over the course of 2025, will result in two-week artistic residencies at the Shopyard programme headquarters, which occupies a shop in Shopping Santa Cruz.
On January 25, during the opening programme of Braga 25 Portuguese Capital of Culture, the Shopyard space will open to the public for the first time to present the result of the first artist residency under this programme. The piece, by artist Gonçalo Araújo, is entitled ‘Exemplary Stories’. Through a sound device, the public will be able to interact with this piece that will tell the stories of people who were and are part of the life of first generation shopping centres. The work doesn’t just dwell on the past; all the testimonies invite the community to reflect on the future of these urban consumer spaces and the life that will now make sense in them.