Trampoline support the participation of artist Mona Cara in Solar dos Abacaxis Residency, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Oficina Solar is an annual artistic residency developed by Solar dos Abacaxis since 2023 to encourage the practice of research, teaching and training of independent artists, sharing this process with the public through a programme offered by the artists themselves. The program has a studio-school practice in which each resident develops their research in the studio space and unfolds it in workshops at solar and partner institutions.
Mona Cara (1997, Hyères) explores the intersection between tapestry and comic books to weave contemporary pop frescoes that reveal the peculiarities of modernity and the ecological disaster it causes. Her work, marked by absurd and current situations, transforms chaos into a joyful apocalypse. Using jacquard weaving and manual techniques, the artist challenges mass production and creates compositions that mix industrial and pictorial elements, generating works full of paradoxes and surprises. To prepare her research in residency, the artist worked in collaboration with textile artists from the TransBorda collective with collaborators from Maré and Tijuquinha communities. Together they created a tapestry that combines jacquard, crochet and fishing net weaving techniques. Part of the piece was made in France, at Tissages de Charlieu, while the mermaid tail was made in Rio. Her research was nourished by a deep relationship with the sea, the fishing colony of Copacabana and the image of Yemanjá that were present throughout her investigations. Artistic assistance : Luciana Magalhães da Silveira ; Susana Soraia de Lima Brito Oliveira ; Antonia Zilma Sousa Araújo ; Renata Ribeiro Florêncio ; Silvia de Melo Meireles