Such is Portugal: in the heart of the Alentejo countryside, near Montemor-o-Novo, stands a church. Seen from the outside it is unremarkable, a small chapel with nothing to distinguish it (perhaps that is where its charm rests, being discreet and simple, as plain as it is sound).

Cities and destinations are trying to be smarter, which means more efficient, faster, even more perfect for both visitors and residents. Are we on the right track? Or are we fuelling a utopia? And is technology an ally or an invader? Three experts give us their opinion.

In the town of Estremoz, generations of clay artists have been crafting their unique figures since the 17th century, telling a story of devotion, of Man’s relationship with nature and different ways of life. Let them be heard.

With nine programmes under its belt and 900 projects led since its creation, the Fondation d'entreprise Hermès shares knowledge, builds bridges, supports the arts and artists, protects the environment and encourages solidarity worldwide.

Rui Chafes (b. 1966) calls the place where he spends his time reading, drawing, moulding iron, thinking and sometimes writing a sanctuary. It's found in the house where he grew up, by the sea, far from the noise of Lisbon, where he normally resides…

Richard Treger and António Saint Silvestre collect artworks that convey dream worlds and impossible realities. It’s called Art Brut (aka Outsider Art) and it brings together those artists who move on the fringes of society, transforming difficult existences into objects that transmit their most instinctive and primitive side. A remarkable journey into the human mind.

Towards the end of the 18th century, the Marquis of Pombal sent naturalists on philosophical expeditions to the New World, where they visited Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde and Brazil. These studies were founded on the meticulous drawings of fauna, flora, people, and landscapes made during these trips, 1,200 of which make up a collection of illustrations currently housed at the Museu de História Natural (Natural History Museum)…

Constança Entrudo may be one of Portugal’s most promising fashion designers, but belongs very much to a world she observes with irony, responsibility and enviable freedom. Big on patterns and individuality, she creates collections as fresh and light as a spring breeze.

A century or so ago, a rather seductive substance appeared on the scene. Versatile, cheap and durable, plastic’s potential immortality has made it one of the biggest problems on a highway to climate hell, in the words of António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations. We may have a love-hate relationship with the stuff, but can we live without it?

Looking back at us — In the summer of 1736, date unknown, the beneficiary Manuel Antunes, native of Barbacena, left home on his mule. On his way from Portas da Esquina to Horta dos Passarinhos, he came across a steep and stony slope, where his mule took fright for reasons unsure. Time and again, the cleric fell to the ground. Badly hurt and in great distress, he pleaded with the heavens, which came to his aid. In keeping with his promise, he had the crude cross in the fields of Torre das Arcas repaired.

Winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 2016, the Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena is also the founder and executive director of the ELEMENTAL studio, based in Santiago, Chile. During his prolific career, much of his work has focussed on public interest and social impact, devising projects that offer creative and unconventional architectural solutions to pressing housing, public space, and infrastructure issues in socially and economically challenging environments. In addition to serving as curator for the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016, Aravena now chairs the jury for the Pritzker.

José Pedro Croft believes that artists have no place in perfection, but rather in questioning the world, which is where he situates his work. Currently celebrating a career spanning 40 years, he says that his job is to bring drama to art, while condemning those who turn serious causes into products or propaganda. Art, he says, doesn’t serve to legitimise anything, nor explain the world.

José Pedro Croft is one of the most prominent Portuguese contemporary artists today. Born in Porto in 1957, he studied painting at ESBAL (Lisbon University Faculty of Fine Arts) where he trained in sculpture under João Cutileiro.

Over the last decade, african architecture has received deserved international attention, much of it focussed on Diébédo Francis Kéré. Originally born in the village of Gando, in Burkina Faso, he trained as an architect at the Technical University of Berlin. In 2022, Kéré received the Pritzker Architecture Prize, becoming the first african architect to do so.

What is knowledge? Where does it come from? How does it sprout and take shape in creativity, in human hands, in time, and flow into objects that whisper, all powerful? I had never seen this invisible thread of knowledge transmission at such close quarters until I found myself lost in conversation and total fascination at Manufactura das Tapeçarias de Portalegre (Portalegre Tapestries).

At ArtWorks, industry meets sculpture, while skilled artisans make artists’ remarkable ideas a reality. Since it started five years ago, ArtWorks has built up a surprising portfolio of artists, such as José Pedro Croft, Cabrita Reis, Fernanda Fragateiro, Grada Kilomba, Julião Sarmento and João Louro, not forgetting a new wave of up-and-coming figures, like Andreia Santana, Sara Bichão, Luisa Jacinto and Diogo da Cruz.

Pessoa, an Experimental Life is the result of 12 years spent trying to prove that Fernando Pessoa, Portugal’s most famous poet, had a life beyond his extensive oeuvre. Considered by many to be the finest and most comprehensive biography on the subject, Richard Zenith, a leading authority on all things Pessoan, reveals how the genius came to be, while highlighting the autobiographical aspects of his heteronymic experiment.

The true symbol of Portuguese identity is not the poet Camões, nor football, nor fado but none other than the humble cod (bacalhau). And it’s not unusual for those Portuguese abroad to miss their own family less than their favourite cod dishes, with 1,001 different recipes to choose from. The fish is also a big favourite for Christmas dinner, for rich and poor alike.

When I explain what I do, who I am, I often say how old the artistic milieu is. It begins in the Paleolithic period, at a time when society was structured very differently to today. There was a tribe that constantly moved from place to place, leaving its mark in the caves and places where it sheltered. Even in such a simple society, there were artists representing the life of their people, something they’ve been doing until now.

Where others see weeds, Alexandre Delmar and Maria Ruivo see edible and curative plants. And so Recoletora was born, a pilot-project that has produced a catalogue of wild plants that grow on wasteland. Alexandre Delmar’s a photographer and videographer, Maria Ruivo’s a graphic designer and creative director.