NEW PERSPECTIVE

MagiC Carpets Artistic residency in: Contextile 2022 – Guimarães. This project was created in cooperation with the Santa Casa da Misericordia de Guimarães community of elderly people. The first part of it represents a new life cycle, new materiality embracing the handcraft, story and imperfections. Giving a second life to the old, obsolete handmade textiles that were collected from the local community and creating new forms from it in a sustainable way, by using plant-based bioplastic recipes. To make a bioplastic I was using water; agar agar which is a binding material that is made out of different types of algae; mixing it with glycerine that helps bioplastic to keep its flexibility and using apple cider vinegar that helps to prevent the material from becoming mouldy during the drying process. I was cooking and stirring over medium heat until the solution started to boil and became viscous, then covered all the collected textiles with this mixture. When the materials dried, I began to form different shapes by hand to create my installation. The other part of my project represents collaborative art from the community that was created during the workshops by using various textile techniques such as braiding, weaving, crocheting, sewing, we used different types of textile industry leftovers, also jute, linen, cotton threads. Artist: Indrė Spitrytė Mikuckė Curator: Cláudia Melo Partner: Ideias Emergentes City / Country: Guimarães, Portugal