SUMMER LABYRINTHS 2025
The Guarda Rios collective was the special guest of the summer edition of our Escola dos Labirintos, offering participants five intense days of discovery, fun, and learning. The children embarked on a sensory and playful journey through interactive games, visual activities, and group dynamics designed to stimulate imagination and critical thinking.
Dia 1 – MESA RIO | ATIRAR O BARRO À PAREDE | CERAMICS WORKSHOP
Dia 2 – SAÍDA RIO | AUTOMATIC SCULPTURES
Dia 3 – BOLAS + LITOFONE | MESA RIO II | CERAMICS WORKSHOP
Dia 4 – WATER TEST + DIY MICROSCOPE | PAINTING ON FILM | RIVER BESTIARY
Dia 5 – HYPORHEIC ZONE | DRINKING FROM STONE | MESA RIO + PROJECTION | PRESENTATION
We would like to thank all the children who joined us for another wonderful adventure in the Labirintos de Verão. These were days filled with discovery, creativity, and joy — and every smile, curious question, and act of participation made this experience truly special. Here’s to new adventures ahead!
Venue: OSSO, Aldeia de São Gregório
Date: 07 – 11 de July 2025
WHAT IS ESCOLA RIO?
Escola Rio is a programme developed by the Guarda Rios collective, aimed at school groups, parent associations, and young audiences. Through sensory dynamics and artistic experiences, it addresses themes related to water, rivers, and ecosystems. Using a methodology that is both playful and educational, participants explore topics such as the origin of water and life on Earth, liquid and solid flow, the hyporheic zone, basic aspects of sedimentology, and other elements of river ecology.
These themes are approached through installations and interactive devices that promote hands-on experiences, encouraging children to participate in practical and creative ways. The workshops involve materials sourced from rivers and riverbank landscapes — sands, clays, and pigments — and the use of unusual objects and tools (such as giant balls, water, sand, and 16mm film), making the activities engaging and stimulating.
Escola Rio thus merges the worlds of scientific knowledge and natural curiosity with a strong artistic, installative, and participatory dimension.
ABOUT THE COLLECTIVE:
The Guarda Rios collective brings together artists and researchers from diverse fields — visual arts, performance, ecology, architecture, technology, and archaeology — who activate these practices through participatory artistic processes: walks, games, group dynamics, collective actions, moments of listening and observation, drawings, and landscape installations that engage local communities wherever the project is presented.
At the intersection of art and science, the collective seeks to develop new forms of interaction and inclusion through community participation, sharing knowledge and articulating experiences through art. After several years of mapping and research — from north to south, coast to interior — the group found in the models of the River Observatory, Escola Rio, and Sediment Laboratory ways to break down and make accessible the technical and scientific knowledge they continue to gather, while keeping the project open and responsive to the different hydro-geographies it traverses.
