CNAD, Mindelo, since July 2022.
Curators: Adélia Borges and Irlando Ferreira
The show “Criação Cabo-Verdiana: Percursos” presents a selection among the works gathered at the Centro Nacional de Arte, Artesanato e Design (CNAD; National Center of Art, Craft, and Design) in Mindelo, Cape Verde. This public collection started to be put together in the 1970s when the then Centro Nacional de Artesanato (CNA; Craft National Center) was inaugurated in the context of the country’s fight for political independence. The members of CNA pursued in the 1980s all-encompassing research through the nine inhabited islands in the country, collecting works by the Cape-Verdean people and developing, with a watchful and respectful eye to this vernacular wisdom, pieces that aimed at expanding the works’ typologies and creative powers. The dynamism in the institution was resumed from 2015, and the expansion of the collection was carried on through artistic residencies, competitions, and acquisition stimulating contemporary production from tradition. With the difficult task of selecting from a very rich universe with hundreds of works, curators Adélia Borges and Irlando Ferreira, then director of CNAD, decided to gather pieces with different typologies, raw materials, techniques, and places, in a transversal reading, without following any chronological order. The time arch covers about 130 years—from a ceramic utensil from 1890 to 2022, from when the last pieces date. This is important heritage that stays protected, in constant expansion and renewal.
The guiding principle of CNA, currently CNAD, had in its base the affirmation through culture—which is reflected in this show. Our greatest goal was to create a mirror where the Cape Verdean population can recognize themselves and be recognized—a mirror of a multifaceted, diverse and immensely culturally rich nation. The inauguration of this long-term exhibition marked the reopening of the CNAD building after going through architectonic requalification with a project by Ramos Castellano Arquitectos. CNAD is a public institution under the wing of the Ministry of Culture and Creative Industries of Cape Verde. More information: https://cnad.cv/event/criacao-cabo-verdiana-percursos/
Exhibition design: Ana Cunha
Photos by Estúdio Peso
Access video with the CAN/CNAD history
