ISABEL CARVALHO

OSSA
21.09.2025 / 03.10.2025

link | book

Ossa brings together the work developed by Isabel Carvalho during her residency at the association Pó de Vir a Ser.

Starting from the preliminary idea of placing Évora within a repertoire of stonework chants, the artist has created, in the cadence of her own practice, a choir of small sculptures or beings: the Osseanes. The poem is mineral — it sings to the Serra de Ossa, that oceanic remnant of the region, revealed in the veins and in the voice of each Osseane. The fable is material, taking shape in the choir — in the collective — which invokes water as a more-than-human common, whether in the Alentejo or in another multilocal bioregion.

The Osseanes’ melopeia (chant) is itself written as a score, also on display, bringing writing and publishing into the exhibition as distinctive components of Isabel Carvalho’s practice. Likewise, and as she has often done throughout her career, the artist has sought other discourses and collaborative interjections — with editor Gonçalo Sena, poet Nuno Marques, and the artistic guidance of Pedro Fazenda and Mariana Mata-Passos during her residency.