The dismantling of the mining complex left a trail of buildings now in disrepair. These walls, stones, iron and acid lakes are today traces of a memory of glorious times that will not be forgotten.

Looking at this landscape of infinite possibilities, Sónia Godinho, a photographer invited by the MALACATE project, challenged the children of Escola da Mina to imagine this place in an alternative way. How could these children - who did not live in the times that only old photographs document - look at the stone giants and the wastelands? Is this a magical place where buildings and stones hide fantastic secrets?

​

After several working sessions between the photographer and the children, it was discovered what happens here when no one is looking: a strange power emanates from these ores, transforming those who really believe into wonderful creatures, which are an unexpected mixture of animals that everyone knows. This isn't just a place of ancient ghosts. Here inhabits new desires, visible only to those who are more attentive and who, for a moment, have the courage to let themselves be carried away by the imagination.

The children created through traditional collage the aesthetic basis of what would become a set of dreamlike figures made later through digital photographic collage and large format printing