Mar de Experiências: Plastic, Craft and the Stories Washed Ashore
A faded bucket, a broken basket, a piece of plastic decades old. On Portugal’s beaches, Teresa Azevedo and Bruno Costa, the artists behind Mar de Experiências, find materials with stories still to tell.
Their project grew from a love of coastal life — its fishing traditions, people and memories. Today, they turn discarded materials into sculptures, installations and hands-on workshops, connecting creativity with care for the ocean.
We spoke with Teresa and Bruno about stories found in plastic, the possibilities of craft and making a living from work they believe in.
The idea behind Mar de Experiências was very simple: to better understand and celebrate the place where we live, its history, its people and the relationship the community has always had with the sea.
We began by developing activities connected to local history and culture, particularly through storytelling, activities for children and the collection of memories. We gradually realised that many stories, skills and aspects of local identity deserved greater recognition and a wider audience.
From there, the project grew to bring together different areas: coastal culture, education, science, sustainability and, later, art made from waste.
When you talk about “coastal culture,” what does that mean to you — and how do you bring it to life through your work?
For us, celebrating coastal culture means valuing not only the sea as a natural environment, but also the people, occupations, traditions, stories, knowledge and relationships that communities have developed with this coastal area.
We try to turn this into tangible experiences: books, storytelling sessions, games, trails, workshops, exhibitions and art installations. We also work with the memories and accounts of people who have a direct connection to the area.
Above all, we want to build connections between knowledge and experience. History helps us understand who we are and where we come from; science helps us better understand our surroundings; and art allows us to communicate these subjects in ways that reach very different audiences.
How did the things you found washed ashore become the starting point for your art?
It was a gradual process.
As we developed the project and spent more time on the beaches, we became increasingly aware of the waste left on the sand and in the dunes. We began by collecting and examining these materials, and then felt the urge to find new uses for them.
For us, making art became a natural way of working with these materials. I began experimenting and realised that what was considered rubbish could become a piece with a message and a story. It could also pay tribute to the people who have been, and continue to be, part of the area and contribute to it.
That was how one of the most visible aspects of Mar de Experiências emerged: turning waste into art and using that art to talk about the environment, biodiversity, history and culture.
Our first major exhibition in this area was “Biodiversidade que nos conta História” (“Biodiversity That Tells Our History”). We created representations of Vila Chã’s biodiversity from waste collected on the beach, using them to tell the story of how local fishing has evolved and to honour the people who shaped that history and shared their stories with us.
Once something catches your eye on the beach, how does it find its way into an installation?
It all begins with collecting and observing.
We collect materials, mainly on beaches and along the coast, and then select them according to what we have found and the project we want to develop. We also keep materials for future opportunities, such as themed workshops or installations commissioned by clients.
The material often shapes the work itself. Rather than always starting with a form and then looking for materials, we often do the reverse: we find particular objects or pieces of waste and begin imagining what they could become.
Then comes the entire process of cleaning, sorting, preparing, building and assembling the piece. It is very hands-on and time-consuming, but that transformation is precisely what interests us: taking a material that has lost its original purpose and giving it a new life and a new story.
What turns up most often on your beach walks — and which finds are a joy or a challenge to work with?
Plastic is one of the materials we find most frequently, but we come across many other kinds of waste and materials too.
There are some items whose presence on the beach we cannot explain. Coffee capsules are the most puzzling. The most dangerous are needles used in healthcare and livestock farming.
In fact, we created two projects specifically to show the quantity and variety of materials we find on beaches. One was the exhibition “Praia, Outras Perspetivas” (“The Beach, Other Perspectives”), followed by the children’s book “Um tesouro na praia” (“A Treasure on the Beach”), published by Alfarroba Editora. Both highlight materials we frequently encounter during our collections, mainly in winter and near river mouths: food and personal care packaging; waste from agriculture, livestock farming, fishing, construction and various industries; office supplies; decorative and spiritual objects; and even costume and fine jewellery.
The most interesting materials for installations are rigid plastics, such as buckets, baskets and boxes. Small objects work well for decorative details or art workshops. Much of our work is tailored to each client’s theme, audience and activity duration.
When someone stops in front of one of your installations, what do you hope happens — a moment of wonder, a new understanding, an urge to act?
Our work rests on four essential pillars: Art, Knowledge, Sustainability and Community Engagement.
A piece is an artwork and, at the same time, an educational tool and a way of raising environmental awareness. Community engagement involves gathering information and knowledge from people and sharing it with others.
It is precisely this combination that we seek.
Art can attract attention and provoke a reaction. When someone looks at an installation and realises that it was made from waste, they immediately begin to question where those materials came from, the journey they have taken and what we do with the things we no longer want.
In the Sustent’Arte project, for example, this relationship between art, public space and environmental awareness was particularly strong. The project transformed waste collected from the sea, beaches, riverbanks and woodland into art, using artistic creation to communicate environmental issues.
Who joins your workshops, and what gets them curious enough to roll up their sleeves and start creating?
We want people to be participants, rather than simply spectators.
Depending on the context, workshops may involve children, families, schools, businesses or other audiences. We work with waste and challenge participants to create something from it. Every piece has a purpose, a theme and an objective. We always begin by raising environmental awareness, discussing our experience of collecting waste, reuse, the potential for circularity and upcycling.
We believe it works best when there is a practical, creative element.
Telling someone that they should reuse materials or talking about pollution is different from giving them a selection of waste materials with which to create a unique, purposeful piece. At that point, they are no longer simply listening to a message. They are experiencing what it means to turn waste into a resource.
What was hardest about getting Mar de Experiências off the ground — and what still keeps you on your toes today?
Mar de Experiências began as a voluntary initiative driven by enthusiasm. We developed activities and resources to deepen understanding, appreciation and awareness of local coastal culture.
Over time, these activities became more frequent and consistent, and our offer grew more varied. The focus on marine pollution also opened new doors: it is a shared, global problem that connects local realities with environmental issues affecting everyone.
Although participants and different organisations recognise the importance of these subjects and show interest, we feel that funding this kind of work is still often seen as a cost rather than an investment. As a result, we work on a variety of projects, often diverse and one-off, instead of being able to explore particular themes, artistic languages and forms of expression in greater depth over time.
One of our main challenges is therefore to make our work and artworks better known among galleries, organisations and other bodies that may recognise the value of this approach. We also seek partnerships with potential investors and organisations experienced in these areas that could, for example, help develop projects for funding applications and programmes.
Ultimately, we are trying to create the conditions for something that began as a voluntary initiative to keep growing, without losing the identity and connection to the local area at the heart of Mar de Experiências.
How do you make a living from the work you care about? What pays the bills at Mar de Experiências, and how do you balance that with your cultural and environmental commitments?
For us, what most distinguishes Mar de Experiências is the way every piece of work brings together four pillars: Art, Knowledge, Sustainability and Community Engagement.
Connecting these different dimensions makes the works easy for people to understand and relate to, creating an emotional bond between the viewer, the participant and the work itself. This approach is particularly relevant when a client’s purpose goes beyond making art and also involves conveying a message, encouraging reflection or raising awareness in a thoughtful, engaging way.
Mar de Experiências does not work in the abstract. The artworks themselves often become occasions for participation, sharing and community engagement. Through art and a playful approach, we seek to encourage awareness and responsibility towards the environment and local identity, making our messages accessible and relatable to different audiences.
This ability to combine artistic expression with concrete subject matter and people’s participation makes our work particularly useful in educational settings, such as schools and other learning spaces, but also in businesses, notably through team-building activities, and in public institutions or spaces open to the community.
In these settings, art becomes both an outcome and a tool for communication, learning, participation and awareness, allowing messages to be conveyed more clearly, personally and engagingly.
Who have you teamed up with along the way — and which collaborations have helped Mar de Experiências grow the most?
Yes. Over the years, we have worked with different kinds of organisations: municipalities, schools, businesses, associations, scientific institutions and other organisations involved in education, culture and sustainability.
For us, a good partnership is one in which there is a real connection between what we do—bringing together Art, Knowledge, Sustainability and Engagement—and the objectives of the organisation we work with.
One example is our work with Ascendi, where waste from the company itself was used to create a lynx, a symbol of its identity.
Another good example is Mútua dos Pescadores, which promotes sustainability in the fisheries sector through ongoing activities that encourage understanding and appreciation of fishing from an early age.
Our partners focus on prevention, reuse, upcycling and purposeful circularity grounded in the development of shared knowledge.
Is there a beach find, an installation or a workshop you keep coming back to — a story that feels especially true to Mar de Experiências?
Every object we collect, even those we now consider waste, has a story.
Each object was designed and produced for a particular purpose, carefully made to fulfil a function and used by someone at a particular time, in a particular place and context. When it reaches us, often decades later, it bears traces of that journey. Time, use and exposure to sun, water, sand and other environmental and erosive factors have transformed it, but have also added new information to its story.
Every object or fragment can therefore be fascinating and revealing. It allows us to observe a community’s consumption patterns, ways of life, values and habits, as well as the evolution of materials and design. The type of plastic, its shape, colours, inscriptions, country of origin or even the absence of certain markings can help us understand a period and connect an object with the place where it was found.
This is why we highlight the “Lixos com História” (“Waste with a History”) collection, which consists of plastic objects more than 30 years old, collected on beaches. These include pieces around 50 years old and objects associated with products and consumption habits that are no longer part of our daily lives. More than a collection of waste, it is a kind of material archive that allows us to look at the past through the objects left behind.
One of our most memorable installations was “Tio Nicolau” (“Uncle Nicolau”), a piece made entirely from waste collected on beaches. It depicts a seasoned fisherman from Póvoa de Varzim wearing the traditional camisola poveira, a local woollen jumper with its distinctive symbols, and tells a story connected to the identity and memory of the town’s fishing community.
Through this character, we also recall the repatriation of fishermen from Póvoa de Varzim in 1920–1921, when more than a thousand fishermen living in Brazil returned to Portugal.
In this work, the material itself—the rubbish collected from the beach—becomes part of the narrative. Waste becomes more than something discarded: it becomes a vehicle for memory, capable of telling stories about people, places, ways of life and changes in society.
How do you draw people into the stories behind your work — in person, through images or on social media — and help them feel closer to the ocean?
The story is fundamental to us.
A piece may be visually interesting, but it is essential to explain where the materials came from, why it was created, who it represents or which issue it addresses. That connection is immediate and direct. Our works encourage reflection and understanding beyond the artwork and creative process, carrying information about culture and identity. This creates a much stronger connection with the public.
We always try to make the object tell a story. This is one reason why we combine art with history, memory, science and sustainability.
Social media and visual communication help us show this process and reach people who might otherwise never encounter the project. But what matters most to us is that an image sparks curiosity and makes someone want to discover the story behind it.
What stays with people after a workshop or exhibition — and how can you tell if it changes the way they think about waste, what they buy or the ocean?
We do not want to claim that a single activity changes behaviour on its own. We aim to create opportunities for reflection and experiences that contribute to understanding and engagement and, where relevant, changes in consumption and behaviour. We believe the visual impact and hands-on experience are powerful and can encourage small, everyday actions in different settings.
For someone inspired to start something similar, where would you suggest they begin — and what would you warn them about?
Our first piece of advice would be to start with what you truly know and value.
There is no need to begin with a huge project. You can start locally, observe the area, listen to people, identify a problem and try out a solution.
I would also advise against seeing waste simply as rubbish. It is important to recognise that many materials still have value and can be transformed or reused in different ways.
Looking five years ahead, what would you love to be creating — and who would you like to have along for the journey?
Naturally, I would like the project to keep growing without losing what lies at its origins: its connection to the local area, to people, to creativity and to sustainability.
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