The exhibition entitled "Celebration and Body" presented the work of the Madeiran sculptor Carmen in conjunction with some works from the MASF textile collection.

The exhibition was a visual proposal to rethink, today, the human relationship with the environment, starting from a narrative that resumes the connection of the feminine with the forces of nature and weaves dialogues with the works, space and identity of this museum.

Curated internally by Martinho Mendes, the exhibition resulted from an invitation extended to the Madeiran sculptor Carmen in 2018. The proposal led the artist to make several visits to the museum, to bring together in her collections the inspiration and theme needed to execute a specific project.



All the work executed was inspired by the collection of textiles, specifically the liturgical vestments in the museum's reserves, which the artist learned about from the technicians. The main choice fell on a fragment of a surplice with Madeira embroidery, from the early twentieth century, which arrived at the museum a few decades ago. It was the fragility of linen, the marks of the passage of time on the fabric, as well as the different elements of nature and the Eucharist, composed and embroidered with Madeira embroidery, that most touched the artist.



In fact, the exhibition includes two textiles from the reserves of the MASF collection and establishes different dialogues with the sculptures, with the photographs, video and sound proposed by the artist in an immersive spatial layout.

This project also wove in a connection to the encyclical Laudato Si: On the care of our Common Home, written by Pope Francis in 2015. Inspired by the Canticle of the Creatures by St. Francis of Assisi, this encyclical recalled how everything is interconnected and calls for the urgency of the construction, individual and collective, of an integral ecology – environmental , economic and social – (LS, n.138), which restores harmony and listens to the message of all beings on earth, a planet in stark exhaustion.





About the artist



Carmen is one of the most expressive voices in Madeira's artistic panorama to explore the complex relations between human beings, nature and culture, registering a diverse plastic production, with roots in sculpture, installation and performance, moving between the fields of aesthetics, ethics and the spiritual.

She was born in Funchal in 1950, where she lives and works. She completed the General Sculpture course at the Escola Superior de Belas Artes de Lisboa (1974) and the Complementary Sculpture Course at the Instituto Superior de Artes Plásticas da Madeira (1976). She was a professor of Visual Arts in Funchal (1974 - 2010).



She has held collective exhibitions since 1974, where the following stand out: Horizons of Art in Poetics, Congress Centre of Porto Santo (2018); Landscapes, The presence of the Religious, Museum of Sacred Art of Funchal (2016); Fill the Sea, Baltazar Dias Municipal Theatre (2016); Portable Atelier, Municipal Theatre Baltazar Dias (2013); Hortus Deliciarum, Teatro Municipal Baltazar Dias (2010); O Risco, Teatro Municipal Baltazar Dias (2007); Gallery in Grande, Collective Small Format Exhibition, SRTC Gallery, (2001); Madeira Brand 2000 - Contemporary Art Festival, Madeira Tecnopolo (2000); Largo das Ilhas, Exhibition of Artists of Madeira in the Azores, Gallery 8 (1999); 20 Years of Plastic Arts in Madeira, Museum of Contemporary Art - Fortaleza de São Tiago (1999); The Steps of Time, Casa das Mudas (1998); Madeira Brand 97, Contemporary Art Festival (1997); Echoes, SRTC Gallery (1997); II Exhibition of Plastic Arts of Circul'Arte, Teatro Municipal Baltazar Dias (1989); I Exhibition of Plastic Arts of Circul'Arte, Teatro Municipal Baltazar Dias (1987).

Her work is found in private collections and at the Mudas Museum of Contemporary Art of Madeira.