Rita Rainho and Vanessa Monteiro-CABO VERDE

Neve Insular is an artistic collective from the island of São Vicente, Cabo Verde, created by the authors Rita Rainho (researcher at Institute of Research in Art, Design, and Society) and Vanessa Monteiro (fashion designer). Born from the utopia of projecting ancestral knowledge of the Cabo Verdean traditional cloth [panaria /panu d’terra], it engages a holistic experiment that encompasses the agroecological, educational and artistic dimensions across the entire cotton fiber cycle.

Neve Insular started the organic cotton plantation in Madeiral through a collaboration with Calhau and Madeiral Agricultural Association, in 2018, participating in the Design Salon Created in Cabo Verde, by the National Centre for Art, Craft and Design. The field created, where the fiber emerges, is itself part of the collaborative artistic work. Here lies a new time of existence: the time of nature, of being, and the time of creation.

The international exhibition and discourse program “Neve Insular - 0.0003% cotton and resistance” got nominated as “‘Best of’ African and Afro-diasporic visual arts in Portugal in 2023”, by magazine Bantumen.