Neve Insular · Banda Mini ni
Banda Mini ni
Composition
Cloth — ni together with the weaver Cândida Rocha, using agroecological cotton from the ni crop in collaboration with AAPCM and Mulheres do Vale.
Support spindle (optional) — ni together with Mr. António Vitorino da Graça, using fig-tree wood from Santo Antão, Figueiral Ra Grande area.
Synopsis
Banda ni is a work dreamed up in Madeiral, born from the collective experiments at Rbera - Artist Residency, in mountain time and in the desire to create a code that can be deciphered deep within each of us, crossing the cloth and touching the earth.
This cloth is the legacy of a heritage of violent voyage, the transatlantic slave trade, and of knowledge crossed between Manjaco and Pepel weavers (peoples of present-day Guinea-Bissau) held captive in the Cabo Verde archipelago and the Portuguese, some six hundred years ago. Our present-day culture makes it hard to grasp the human relationship with Banda ni, not as a neutral cloth woven from plant fibres, but as a work carrying the energy that connects us to the land where the cotton sprouted, to the hands that spun it, and to the intention of those who devoted themselves to the weaving and the design of the whole cycle.
