Anna Nunes van den Hoven

The sculptures (2024–) emerge from casts of previously formed female figures, shaped through play and free movement. Through the application of large quantities of cacao, coffee and indigo, the bodies deform, collapse and fracture. The materials are directly connected to the first large-scale plantation economies and to histories of slavery and monoculture. Within these systems, land was exhausted, communities were displaced and cultural and ecological knowledge was interrupted. The fractured bodies remain marked by these histories. They hold the material consequences of plantation economies, where the exploitation of land and bodies became inseparable. The sculptures speak in particular to the experiences of women, whose lives were shaped by overlapping forms of colonial and patriarchal violence.

Project centred on a ceramic tradition, historically led by women, that moved across the Atlantic, from the African continent to Cape Verde, São Tomé and later to the Caribbean and South America, where it continued to adapt and evolve. Through histories of colonisation, slavery, and broader social change, this ceramic practice was gradually pushed to the margins of everyday life. Questions remain about how this knowledge continues to be remembered and practised across different geographies, and how it persists within landscapes, objects, and communities. Since 2024, the project studies this tradition through archival research, literature, archaeology and artistic residencies with people who continue to carry and practise this knowledge. During these residencies, knowledge is shared through conversations and collective ceramic practice. These encounters offer insight into the forms, techniques, and gestures that have adapted across different contexts shaped by migration, while creating space to reflect on the historical and contemporary processes that have placed this knowledge under pressure. The residency processes unfold on textile surfaces: from conversations to preparing clay and shaping objects together. The fabric becomes infused with clay pigments, traces of the ceramic tradition and the handprints of those who carry this knowledge across different geographies. In this way, the textile becomes both a witness and a material archive of this heritage: tracing how the tradition continues to persist across the Atlantic, within communities and the landscape. tracing how the tradition continues to move across the Atlantic, through communities and landscapes.

Developed in collaboration with ceramicists Alcides Morais and Isabel Sanches and with diasporic communities in Loulé, Lisbon and Rotterdam.

In collaboration with Isabel Sanches and diasporic communities in Loulé and Lisbon.

Developed in collaboration with ceramicists Alcides Morais and Isabel Sanches and with diasporic communities in Loulé, Lisbon and Rotterdam.

In collaboration with ceramicist Alcides Morais and members of the Cape Verdean community in the Netherlands.