ANOTHER SHADOW, 2026
In the Cistern at Casa da Cerca, Edgar Massul creates a sensory experience of half-light, inward gathering and contemplation. Drawing on the idea of umbria — shade understood as a sensorial place — the work summons the descent underground, natural light, the eye’s slow adjustment and the possibility of a more lingering attention. On entering the space, perception does not settle at once: we must pause, allow the body to adjust to the low light and let the objects gradually emerge, not as givens but as presences.
Here, shadow is not an absence of light but a condition of listening: an interval in which the gaze slows and space acquires density. The cistern thus becomes a place of passage between what can be seen and what can only be sensed, between the materials it contains and the silence surrounding them. The work asks the body to take its time, summoning an experience that depends less on immediate apprehension than on a willingness to remain.
The charred trunk of an Acacia dealbata, a giant oyster shell bearing pigments and a cotton cloth extend this relation between nature, memory and transformation. Found while walking, the trunk and shell introduce the dimension of encounter that runs through the artist’s process: what appears along the way is selected, displaced and transformed, so that it can then return, in another form, to nature. As an invasive species that threatens native ecosystems, Acacia dealbata also introduces an ecological concern that has long informed Edgar Massul’s work and his attentiveness to the landscape’s transformations. Suspended in space, the cloth holds the memory of other lives, other gestures, other uses.
Moving between the found and the made, outra sombra, 2026 [Another Shadow, 2026], draws close to site-specific
practices, land art and Arte Povera. Yet it does so quietly, without monumentality, allowing the materials to retain their fragility and transitory character. The work is poised between the impermanence of organic matter and the persistence of memory in things, bringing contemporary art close to ancestral nature.
Massul’s relationship with Pedro Morais and with Atelier Livre — AT.RE also opened up a field of attention to gesture, experience and questioning. It was in this context that his encounter with Zen master Hōgen Daidō Yamahata drew him towards a mode of thought in which practice takes shape through everyday acts, openness to the question and acceptance of what remains unfinished. In outra sombra, 2026, this dimension appears not as an explicit reference but as a way of being: allowing materials, place and time to guide part of the process.
Between simplicity, imperfection and silence, outra sombra, 2026 proposes an intimate encounter between light, matter and time. It is a work that asks us to linger: to descend, to stop, to see little — and perhaps, in that little, to see better.
Cláudia Ramos
1 another shadow, 2026 raw linen fabric, river stones, charred acacia log, and oyster shell, variable dimensions
Almada City Council Mayor and Culture Councilor
Inês de Medeiros
Social Development
Municipal Director
Eduardo Quinta Nova
Culture Department
Director
Rute Moura
Head of the Contemporary Art Centre
Nuno Moura
Curated by Cláudia Ramos
Production and installation
Ana Taipas
Paulo Ramos
Communication
Paula Freire
Administration Support
Carla Novais
Educational Service
Ana Sofia Godinho
Mário Rainha Campos
Sílvia Moreira
Mestre Rogério Ribeiro
Documentation and Research Centre
Ana Margarida Martins
Collection Management
Maria Miguel Cardoso
Botanical Garden
Sónia Francisco
Hugo Ribeiro
Front-of-House
Anabela Almeida
Fernando Simões
Hélder Gonçalves
Júlia Garcia
Tatiana Marques
Victor Borges
Support
Emília Ferreira
Installation support
Divisão de Manutenção de Equipamentos Municipais da CMA
Translation
José Roseira
Graphic design vivóeusébio
Graphic materials production
Original Pixel
CASA DA CERCA
Rua da Cerca, 2800-050 Almada
Т. 212 724 950 casadacerca@cm-almada.pt www.cm-almada.pt/casa-da-cercacentro-de-arte-contemporanea
facebook @festadacasadacerca instagram @casadacerca
OPENING HOURS
From Monday to Sunday. Closed on holidays.
Summer schedule 1 APR – 30 SEP 10:15 am-8:00 pm
Winter schedule 1 OCT – 31 MAR 10:15 am-5:30 pm