SHOPYARD

Open Studio
Exemplary Stories 
by Gonçalo Araújo

25 January 2025 
10:00 - 20:00
Free / General Public

On the official opening day of Braga 25, the Shopyard headquarters opened its doors for a public presentation marking the start of its first artistic residency, selected through an open call launched 
at the end of 2024.

This call invited Braga-based artists, architects, and designers to submit proposals for artistic creations that engage with the specificities of the city’s first-generation shopping centres. Five proposals were selected and, over the course of 2025, their authors will each undertake a two-week artistic residency.


Photographs by Lais Pereira / Braga25

During his residency, artist Gonçalo Araújo collaborated with various shopkeepers from Santa Cruz shopping centre, collecting their stories, gathering objects, and producing elements that formed part of his installation.

Through an audiovisual device presented during the Open Studio, the public was invited to interact with a piece that shared the stories of people who have shaped — and continue to shape — the life of Braga’s first-generation shopping centres. The aim was not to anchor the work in the past; on the contrary, each testimony encouraged communal reflection on the future of these urban spaces of commerce and social interaction, and on the kinds of life and activity that still make sense within them today.

The work presented was a sketch of what will be shown again in November 2025, as part of the final Shopyard exhibition.






Gonçalo Araújo (Braga, 1993) holds a degree in Fine Arts – Multimedia from FBAUP (2017). An artist and producer with the collective Rua do Sol, he has participated in various exhibitions and projects. Notable works include: Zimbório (2016, Casa Andresen); the video Foge que te acaço (2018, CAPC); the film Anjo da Guarda (2019, winner of Encontrarte Amares); and the musical sculpture Boca de Raia (2019, winner of the White Night open call). He was the director of photography for the series Estrelas sem ti (2022) and released the graphic novel Sicrano (2023). Since 2020, he has also worked as a lighting technician for performances, particularly at the CCOP Auditorium.