Neve Insular, as a project, was the seed that served as a pilot model for the work of the Neve Insular collective, grounded in the fields of agroecology, art education and art & design.
Aimed at children, teachers, farmers and local makers, it created spaces for learning, experimenting and sharing ancestral agricultural and environmental, craft and artistic practices. By bringing together different generations and contexts, it sought to value ancestral knowledge and foster new ways of relating to the territory.
In partnership with CNAD, the collective returned to URDI - Cabo Verde Crafts and Design Fair, contributing to the consolidation of these practices and to an integral, holistic vision, in order to inspire alternative ways of appropriating ancestral knowledge revisited in the light of contemporary challenges.
Mon na Terra Workshop “Agroecology and Art Education”
In the Art Education Workshop for children, we used games, collages, drawings in various media and other activities to explore together the importance of cotton in the historical context of Cabo Verde, its relevance and the impact it can have today.
The Agroecology Workshop took place on the 300 m² plot provided by the Associação Agropecuária do Calhau e Madeiral (AAPCM). During this workshop for AAPCM members, the importance of recovering traditional knowledge of the relationship between people and nature became clear. Using a participatory methodology, we were able to gauge how the farmers understand this agricultural practice, also as ecological thought and as a social and political movement, thereby experiencing new perspectives on how we act, learn, produce and consume as individuals.
Mon na Terra Showcase
Drawings unrolled from the earth, turned towards the world. Drawings by thirty and forty hands. Traces of the footprints of those who give way and change places.
Surrounded by the mountains and valleys of Madeiral, the agroecology workshops with AAPCM gave rise to Mon na Terra, an environment with cotton as its central universe and children as the composers of a new imagery.
The various workshop themes — the history of cotton in the world and in Cabo Verde, the cotton plant, the aesthetics of biodiversity, the pattern of Cape Verdean panaria and the craft of cotton — made up the showcase at the Centro Cultural do Mindelo, as part of Mindelact.
Cotton Cycle Workshops
Carding and Spinning Workshop with Mr. Marcelino
CNAD opened its doors to the workshop “Carding and Spinning with Mr. Marcelino”, a space for sharing and exchange, coordinated with the Neve Insular collective and focused on art education. Here, the cotton tools on display at CNAD came into contact with people and were set in motion. In the hands of students, teachers and curious visitors, this workshop was an opportunity to revisit this knowledge and return to the land and to the possibility of connecting with it.
Natural Dyeing Workshop with Flávia Aranha
The Natural Dyeing Workshop with Flávia Aranha connected Cabo Verde to ancestral Brazilian knowledge and practices of dye plants, studied and applied by the designer Flávia Aranha. To offer a first contact with natural dyeing on cotton, we used annatto and brazilwood, with guava leaves for tannin (mordant). Our daring led us to test dragon tree and orchil as local dye plants, but time was too short to obtain meaningful results. We quickly understood that aesthetics, chemistry, physics, botany and also anthropology intersect, and that time is essential to achieving the perfect balance and alchemy.
Nascente
Nascente springs from the Neve Insular utopia. A dream of growing a cotton field, now realised, that reaches beyond borders and unfolds into an installation summing up a year of dedication.