Stone belongs to the group of materials that have accompanied humanity’s development since the beginning of time. From the smallest and simplest objects to the most extraordinary architectural structures, it reveals how we humans appropriate and redefine the world.

The exhibition “A Pedra e a Mão” is focused precisely on the fact that it was through human hands that people began their relationship with this sustainable material; it was also from the hand that the first drawings took shape. In dialoguing with this ancient, noble and beautiful material, the hand guided the first stages of its transformation, making it usable and useful for humanity. The hand made, and continues to make, thinking visible, but it also informs it, interacting with the creative act itself.

The 19 projects on show were designed by 15 designers and 3 architects, Portuguese and international authors who belong to disciplines also inherently linked to the hand and the act of drawing. They were produced by some of the best extraction and processing companies in the world, Portuguese companies, and were shown in different places around the world before arriving in Porto de Mós, a municipality where stone is an identity, part of the landscape and local culture.

One part of the exhibition features utilitarian pieces created by equipment designers and architects – everyday artefacts that explore the relationship between natural materials and their role in today’s society. Another part explores communication design, usually far removed from this material, highlighting its possibilities for innovation in contemporary stone work. Each project demonstrates the power of creativity directed towards the use of a natural material in a society immersed in polluting materials; and proves that the hand and imagination, now combined with the power of the machinery and new technologies, can achieve anything.

A “Pedra e a Mão” is an exhibition that takes place after the end of the First Stone programme, the result of an initiative by the Porto de Mós City Council, in collaboration with Assimagra and conceived by experimentadesign.