KAREN FRANCESCA | «I feel safe when the birds sing»
24 Abril 2025 16h00
KAREN FRANCESCA | I feel safe when the birds sing
Open Studio | 24>27 April 2025,16:00-20:00
Zaratan is pleased to present I feel safe when the birds sing, a pop-up exhibition developed by Karen Francesca.
During her month-long residency, Karen Francesca has produced a series of mixed media works that explore our intricate interrelationships with both the natural and urban environments. In an effort to reconnect us with our physicality and the earth, she thoughtfully incorporates commercial signage and Chinese characters, examining language as a physical form. She has also created ceramic pieces bearing concise statements that engage in a dialogue with the streets, tiles, and people of Lisbon.
Through a time- based installation that makes inquiry into the conditions necessary to thrive, Francesca explores notions of regeneration and reparation, suggesting that healing is both personal and ecological in its material requirements; the territories of place and body are linked, and there is little separation between ritual and survival for us.
During her month-long residency, Karen Francesca has produced a series of mixed media works that explore our intricate interrelationships with both the natural and urban environments. In an effort to reconnect us with our physicality and the earth, she thoughtfully incorporates commercial signage and Chinese characters, examining language as a physical form. She has also created ceramic pieces bearing concise statements that engage in a dialogue with the streets, tiles, and people of Lisbon.
Through a time- based installation that makes inquiry into the conditions necessary to thrive, Francesca explores notions of regeneration and reparation, suggesting that healing is both personal and ecological in its material requirements; the territories of place and body are linked, and there is little separation between ritual and survival for us.
The exhibition is complemented by the release of a limited-edition risograph poster, produced in collaboration with Zaratan.
BIOGRAPHY | KAREN FRANCESCA has been making Public Art, gardens, and street-works for over two decades. Extending from the environmental movement, a Fine Art background and her work as an Art Psychotherapist, she draws attention to our loss of relationship with the land and the social implications of environmental degradation. With the dual intention of making comment through large artworks, whilst also creating healthy and bio- rich environments, she facilitates direct contact with the materials of the earth, wild clay and foraging. Teaching food growing and garden creation for many years has informed her way of seeing the potential for collaborative, positive interventions in public space. Francesca’s practice is agricultural and craft based, combining art with ecology, nutrition, landscape, ancient architecture and the social. She is working towards self sufficiency from a forest garden.
SUPPORT | Zaratan is a structure funded by República Portuguesa – Cultura / Direcção-Geral das Artes.