So Far and Yet So Near: The Artistic Residencies of Contextile Biennale Amidst a Pandemic

Held in the Portuguese city of Guimarães since 2012, Contextile: Contemporary Textile Art Biennial was one of the first international events to adjust to the successive lockdowns of COVID-19. Its fifth edition in 2020 included an artist-in-residency program, with two of the eight participants working remotely from their studios. This essay examines the combination of on-site and distant approaches to making and curatorial practices as a response to the pandemic. It starts by briefly tracing the history of textile production in Guimarães, as well as the particular circumstances and display context of Contextile’s artistic residences. I then move on to analyze some of the projects conceived by the artists-in-residence in 2020. My aim is to illuminate the ways in which correspondence emerged as a tool to bridge artists, communities, the biennale staff, craftspeople, and place. In this context, the exhibition of the artistic residencies at the Convent of Saint Anthony of the Capuchins enabled the reification of far-off encounters, along with the exploration of past and present experiences of industrial collapse and a developing health crisis.