PENINSULARES
Second Iberian Encounters of Contemporary Textile Art
Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, Madrid, ES
23.09. – 14.11.2021

The first edition of the Peninsulares project took place in 2013 in Madrid (Spain) and Guimarães (Portugal) with the aim of promoting contemporary Portuguese and Spanish textile creation, neighbouring territories that are spaces of textile culture. Both countries have -and had as shown by history-, a rich and active textile tradition linked to the current production not only in art but also in creative industries as design, craft and fashion.

The second edition of Peninsulares opened at Madrid National Museum of Decorative Arts, MNAD, sharing with the rest of the programmed activities the common objective of offering an overview of the use of the textile element in art. This overview is far from complete as so many artists today have realized the artistic potential of textiles and their works can be found in many art galleries all over the country.

Peninsulares has been promoted jointly by Contextile Biennial / Ideias Emergentes (based in Porto) and Indigo Proyectos (based in Madrid). The exhibition, curated by Cláudia Melo and Lala de Dios, presents works by ten artists (Alves Dias, Amparo de la Sota, Ana Fernandes, Conceição Abreu, Concha Romeu, Hugo Brazão, Mª Jesus Manzanares, Maribel Binimelis, Melcior Martí and Rosa Godinho).  Starting from their own personal and multidisciplinary approaches all artists explore the formal and conceptual potential of the textile elements. Some of them used different techniques such as tapestry, soft sculptures or collages in the production of their works while others worked using humble everyday textiles such as cushion covers, sheets, blankets or old garments to give them a new meaning, the result of an inquiry on personal and collective memories.

The works of the two artists in residence (a woven textile work by María Mallo and an installation by Mónica Faria) are also in show embedded in the space the museum dedicates to its permanent collections as the requirement was to work in dialogue with them.

Finally after the official opening, the exhibition curators Cláudia Melo and Lala de Dios talked about the topic Textile Art Today. Their presentations were followed by a lively debate among the artists present that will be continued soon in a future online session.

Venue:
Nacional de Artes Decorativas.
Montalbán 12, Madrid, Spain.
Running through November 14, 2021.
Opened Tuesday to Sunday 9:30 - 14:30  and Thursday also in the afternoon 17:00 - 20:00.

More information:
https://www.culturaydeporte.gob.es/actualidad/2021/09/210923-expo-peninsulares-mnad.html