"During my residency, explains Shen, I continued the development of KARNAVALO, the imaginary carnival, by creating new troupes. During the last few months, new families of heads were born: the PUPO (20 heads in textiles), HARPLENA (5 heads in textile prints), PILKO (10 heads in papier-mâché), MATURA (21 heads in textile paintings) and STRANDOJ (150 heads in balloons) troops.

This work space gave me the desire and the opportunity to work around the crowd, through all these new colourful and generous characters. The carnival spirit in an imaginary universe immediately encouraged me to offer a visual explosion for the upcoming exhibition.

During February 2023, I had the opportunity to travel to Brazil, to Rio de Janeiro, in the middle of Carnival. Invited by The Bridge Project (Julie Dumont), I had the opportunity to exhibit the HARPLENA Troupe on Arpoador beach, at the Alalao Kiosk.

The PUPO Troupe also had its little outing during the month of April 2023. With the support of Art et marge musée, a parade was organised with the residents of Le 8ème Jour. This parade was filmed, financed by the museum, and will also be shown during the end-of-residency exhibition at the Carrefour des Arts Foundation."

Our new residents Shen Özdemir, Romane Iskaria, Sylvain Delbecque and Diego Herman are now settled in the studios and have been working for a few weeks...

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