(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

The present article has as object the living museum implemented in the cannery Pinhais & Cia, Lda. in Matosinhos (Portugal). It is intended to understand the actions that exploit the image, identity and tangible/intangible values of the factory. Founded in 1920, the factory accompanied the industrial growth process of the southern area of Matosinhos, resisting, until today, to the processes of deindustrialization and urban reconversion started in 1988 with the Urbanization Plan of Matosinhos Sul. Acquired in 2017 by Austrian company Glatz, the company implemented a Living Museum in the factory, providing space to enhance industry’s heritage while maintaining canning production. Currently surrounded by old factories in ruins or undergoing transformation, Pinhais & Cia, Lda. is a living symbol for canning industrial memory. Using the considerations and relating them to the maintenance of the memory of industrial heritage by Mark Robinson (2015), Aurore Caignet (2018), among others, and based as well as Guilherme Martins (2020) idea of cultural heritage as a living reality , we will analyse the case of the factory, comparing it with examples of factories that reconcile a museological space with production – Viarco (São João da Madeira) and Vista Alegre (Ílhavo), among other cases. Using the example of Pinhais & Cia, Lda. we will analyse: the mechanisms used for its valuation; the continuity and maintenance of its tangible/intangible values; the orientation and dissemination of the historical discourse and the internal museum routes in the factory; the sense of social belonging; the role of the digital space in the dissemination of heritage and the correlation between industrial tourism and branding strategies. This article, by exploring an unprecedented model in Matosinhos, will also seek to gauge the reasons for its implementation and role in the context of local, national and international factories.