Promoted by the cultural project Córtex Frontal, HYPERTEXTILE aimed to create a Textile Art Network across Portugal, facilitating mobility, artistic creation, and research.
HYPERTEXTILE was a cycle of textile art residencies for visual artists and designers, building on the 2022 project “Wireless”, supported by the Directorate-General for the Arts, the University of Évora, the Municipality of Arraiolos, and the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Poznan, Poland.
The programme comprised six two-week thematic residencies, which hosted 20 participants throughout 2025. A selection of the resulting works was presented in an exhibition in 2026, curated by Antonia Gaeta.
The 2025 residencies focused on tufting, hand printing and natural dyeing, embroidery, and weaving, and took place in Arraiolos, Mértola, and Guimarães.
Selected participants were provided with accommodation and workspace, materials, training, critical mentoring, and support with transportation within Portugal.
MATASSA EXHIBITION, BEJA 2026
MATASSA was an exhibition developed within the HYPERTEXTILE project, based on artistic processes carried out during residencies in Portugal between 2024 and 2025. Curated by Antonia Gaeta, the exhibition approaches textiles not simply as a material or technique, but as a language and a way of thinking.
Taking the idea of matassa — a bundle of intertwined threads — as its starting point, the exhibition proposes a non-linear experience built through layers, accumulations, fragments and relationships between different artistic practices. The 51 works presented explore processes, memories, gestures and techniques, creating dialogues between tradition and innovation, craft and technology.
MATASSA brought together 34 artists and was presented at the Centro de Arqueologia e Artes de Beja, Praça da República, from 31 January to 4 April 2026. The exhibition occupied different spaces of the building and placed textiles at the centre of a contemporary reflection on relationships, time, transformation and reinvention.
Artists:
Alexander Sebastianus Hartanto | Aliya Al-Adwani | Anastasiia Podervianska | Andrea Ebert | Angelina Nogueira | Antonia Ablass | Athanasia Karampela | Beatriz Freire | Claudia Martínez | Emanuela Boccia | Jacobo Alonso | Janis Dellarte | Jiôn Kiim | Karolina Lizurej | Lars Preisser | Lia Porto | Louis Nye | Lucas Selezio de Souza | Luisa Ramires | Malou Raulin | Margarida Lopes Pereira | Maria Appleton | Maria Esteve | Marta Pokojowczyk | Martina Manyà | Mustafa Boga | Nuno Trigueiros | Pinelopi Triantafyllou | Tadeo Muleiro | Teresa TAF | Vicky Vasileiou | Ylana Yaari | Zé Ardisson | Zsófia Tettamanti
Organisation: Córtex Frontal – Residências e Oficinas and Municipality of Beja
Curator: Antonia Gaeta
Coordination: Mercedes Vidal-Abarca and Diogo Ramalho
Residency production: Mireia Garcia and Isabel Brissos
