Afonso Fontoura

Afonso is a specialist in regenerative agroforestry, agroecology and ecological landscape restoration. Trained in Economics and Sustainable Development, he began his career in finance and impact investing, later dedicating himself to developing models of ecological regeneration, with a particular focus on Mediterranean ecosystems. His work sits at the intersection of agriculture, ecology and regenerative economics, combining research, field practice and the design of agroforestry systems. He is the founder of Seral, a company dedicated to the planning, implementation and management of regenerative agroforestry projects, and co-founder of the Beginnings Festival, an initiative that fosters dialogue between the arts, music and nature in an Alentejo montado. Since 2026 he has been part of the Commonland Foundation as Landscape Developer for the Iberian Peninsula, collaborating on projects of territorial regeneration. He also carries out independent research, writes on agroecology and leads courses and workshops dedicated to the regeneration of the landscape. He lives and works between Évora and Lisbon.

Afonso acts as the ecological and conceptual mentor of the project, accompanying the artists in developing a deeper understanding of the principles of syntropy, through ecology, the observation of the montado and regenerative practice.

Catarina Fontoura

Catarina is an artist, researcher, educator and writer. She holds a PhD from Birkbeck, University of London, in the field of environmental visual histories, and teaches at Falmouth University in the United Kingdom. Her practice unfolds at the intersection of art, science and ecology, exploring forms of collaboration between humans and more-than-human entities through photography, video, drawing and artistic research. Her work has been shown internationally in exhibitions and festivals across Europe, the United States, Mexico and China, and she was nominated for the Magnum Graduate Award in 2015. Among her recent projects is Beloveds (2024), a collaborative cinematic installation centred on honeybees and the ecologies of the Helford river. Her research addresses themes such as environmental visual histories, ecological autobiography, interspecies practices and collaborative methodologies between living art and science. She lives and works between Évora and Cornwall, in the United Kingdom.

Catarina leads the artistic direction of Sintropias, developing methodologies of collaboration between art and ecology, as well as the project’s cultural programming and participatory processes.

João Varela

João Varela is a photographer and visual artist. He holds a degree in Photography from the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar and trained at AKV | St. Joost in Breda, the Netherlands, and at Ar.Co in Lisbon. His artistic practice centres on documentary photography, exploring visual narratives that cross memory, territory and everyday experience, while maintaining a parallel professional activity in product and advertising photography. In 2015 he was a finalist for the Novo Banco Revelação Prize with the project As Strange as Reality, which consolidated his path in contemporary Portuguese photography. His work is distinguished by a sensitive approach to the construction of the image and to the relationships between reality, representation and lived space. Born in Évora, he lives and works in Lisbon, developing personal projects, editorial collaborations and commercial commissions, reconciling visual research with a diverse photographic practice.

João is responsible for the co-coordination of residencies, artistic development and communication of the project.