October

"(...) untold degrees of suffering, destruction, and death (...) clash with simple as well as complex but nondeliberative homeostatic regulation. Time and again, humans have imprudently concluded they had reached an age of stability and reason, one from which injustice and violence would be forever banned, only to discover that the horrors of gross inequity or war had returned with an even stronger force."

"Education, in the broadest sense of the term, is the obvious way forward. A long-term educational project aimed at creating healthy and socially productive environments needs to give prominence to ethical and civic behaviors and encourage classical moral virtues - honesty, kindness, empathy and compassion, gratitude, modesty. It should also address human values that transcend the management of life's immediate needs." 

Antonio Damasio (2018). The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures.

Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) October 2026.

October

"Will we enhance our bodies, learn to live in space, or will we arrive too late in containing global warming, and will Gaia become a vessel of fossilized relics from a species that thought it could command the universe and was not even capable of solving its own contradictions, its violence and its greed?"

"Developed within the framework of the art-science project of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, NaturArchy brings together artists, scientists and policymakers to explore new relationships between humans and the more-than-human world. Rooted in the idea of a “natural contract”, the project reimagines how societies might recognise the agency, rights and value of nature beyond an anthropocentric worldview." Benincasa, Caterina, Adriaan Eeckels, Ingeborg Reichle, and Claudia Schnugg, eds (2026). NaturArchy: Towards a Natural Contract. 

Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) October 2026.

October

Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) October 2026.

October

Four months have passed since the initial selection of materials, and others have been added: fibres, flowers, seeds, roots, leaves and branches collected in nearby territories to which I have access. Instead of catalogued, distant or uniform materials, I work with what is abundant, rejected and even considered undesirable. The tapestries result from a process of reflection, collection, discovery, transformation, care and repetition. They emerge as a visible vestige of the relationships that are established between place, matter and life: a luxury that time allows to give shape. 

Following a ritual started a few years ago, after finishing a tapestry and still on the loom, I take it with me, by train, to the workplace. Between encounters and reactions that are established with those who see it, it starts to have a life of its own, becoming autonomous. I can then dedicate more attention to the next creation.

Passaram quatro meses desde a seleção inicial dos materiais, a que se juntaram outros: fibras, flores, sementes, raízes, folhas e ramos recolhidos em territórios próximos a que tenho acesso. Em vez de materiais catalogados, distantes ou uniformes, trabalho com o que é abundante, rejeitado e, até, considerado indesejável. As tapeçarias resultam de um processo de reflexão, recolha, descoberta, transformação, cuidado e repetição. Emergem como vestígio visível das relações que se estabelecem entre lugar, matéria e vida: um luxo que o tempo permite dar forma. 

Seguindo um ritual iniciado há uns anos, após terminar um trabalho e ainda no tear, transporto-o comigo, de comboio, até ao local de trabalho. Entre encontros e reações que se estabelecem com quem vê, passa a ter vida própria, tornando-se autónomo. Posso então dedicar mais atenção a minha atenção à próxima criação. 

Tapestry «Maximizing life» (83 x 102 cm) by Monica Pinheiro, October 2026.