Cesar Teixeira

César Teixeira was born in 1969 in Gondar, a small village in Amarante, where he still lives and works. At 18, he became an apprentice to master potter Manuel Teixeira, learning two rare ancestral techniques he never abandoned: the low, horizontal, and manual wheel (roda baixa) for shaping clay, and pit-firing (soenga), a firing method in a pit that echoes ancient pagan rituals and transforms the clay into art pieces darkened by fire.

Although he continues to work at the local hospital during the day, the black clay of Gondar is the blood that runs through his veins. César is the last active soenga master in Europe, preserving a craft whose roots date back to the 17th century. The most curious fact is that his workshop is located in an old deactivated primary school - the same one where he learned to read and write as a child.

But César is no longer alone. His son João joined him after returning from Caldas da Rainha, where he studied ceramics at the prestigious ESAD. He learned the gestures, the patience, the timing of the fire and the earth. Together, they work on commission and hold public soengas and workshops, inviting others to mold and fire, in the struggle to keep the ceramic heritage of Gondar alive.