EMBODIED ARCHITECTURES : The curatorial project for ARCO Lisboa 2026

VANESSA BARRAGÃO (b. 1992, Portugal), one of the most esteemed textile artists of Portugal’s new generation, situates her practice within the domain of biomimicry, recreating marine ecosystems through traditional textile techniques such as crochet and latch hook. Her large-scale murals and sculptural installations, produced with recycled materials, evoke underwater landscapes in transformation. Her work transcends the artistic field, extending into institutional representation.

 By fusing tradition with ecological urgency, her practice affirms nature not merely as subject, but as a model and active agent of creation, inspiring processes of ecological and cultural regeneration in a world marked by climate urgency.

In line with the modernist movement of fibre sculpture, which was developed from the mid-twentieth century onwards, Barragão appropriates and redefines age-old techniques and traditional materials according to refreshing and innovative approaches. As previous pioneers artists in the field of fibre art did, such as Françoise Grossen, when they first broke with the rectangle, with the frame and then with the wall, thus expanding the medium’s possibilities, Barragão experiments with spatiality, gravity, and dimensionality while transcending the materials’ weight and constraints.