LÃND — ARTISTIC RESIDENCY

LÃND brought together two artists and two product designers in Manteigas, beginning with visits to Ecolã and Burel Factory before each artist–designer pair developed work within one of the factories. Susana Cereja worked at Ecolã, whose traditional production methods and available materials opened space for experimentation. What most drew her attention were the discarded wool fibres left after the finishing and combing of blankets. In keeping with a practice concerned with reuse and material economy, she explored wet and needle felting as ways of giving this residue a new function. The residency became a space for testing how an industrial by-product could return to artistic practice as matter.