In 2018, the author visited the gold prospecting mine in Freixo de Numão, initially intending to be merely an act of promotion or awareness for the MINAPORT promoter.

Armed only with her mobile phone, she began documenting the journey inside the earth, unexpectedly feeling time come to a halt. Each moment transformed into the discovery of shadows, colors, shapes, and engravings that manifested like paintings or sculptures preserved for millions of years in the depths of the earth. The mine’s opening now functioned as an inauguration of an art gallery with spotlights and flashlights.

In the spaces of the Coa Museum Restaurant from December 19, 2023, 41 photographic pieces will be presented, attempting to convey and better express the moments experienced during the journey in the mine. The exhibition fills the walls of the cafeteria and dining room almost linearly, depicting the entrance to the mine and the initial impressions of the changing space and luminosity. It then progresses through the perception of traces and scars of human intervention in the search for minerals, leading to the discovery of “works of art” on the surfaces and corners of shadows and time. Moments.

In the Paleolithic era, engravings already manifested the human need to record and mark an idea through images over time. With the advent of photography, this new technique or artistic discipline was described as “Pencil in Nature,” essentially a way of achieving the same.

By promoting this exhibition, the Côa Parque Foundation once again recognizes that art relates moments, even if separated by millennia.

On the other hand, the artist feels as though she has stolen these images from the interior of the Côa lands, and by exhibiting them, she is returning them to their true place.