Special Edition Open Lab: Manifesto on Fabrics

House of Bioplastics with an activation by Manuela Picallo Gil

During her residency at AIL, Karina Fernandez opens her studio doors to the public. In form of open lab moments and informal get-togethers Fernandez offers insights into ongoing experiments, spatial prototypes, and material processes, encouraging dialogue with visitors. This edition of open lab presents a special activation by Manuela Picallo Gil:

Special Edition Open Lab: Manifesto on Fabrics

Activation by Manuela Picallo Gil in response to Karina Fernandez

Manifesto on Fabrics reflects the working conditions of workers in the global textile industry as well as the ecological consequences of over exploitation/production and synthetic materials. Starting from production processes, Picallo Gil’s work spans an arc from consumption and use to disposal and recycling.

Manuela Picallo Gil (*1985, Eisenstadt) works transmedially, from drawing and painting to sound installations and participatory formats. She investigates social exclusion, memory, and identity through personal and collective narratives, reflecting on language, migration, media, and labor in the tension between rural and urban contexts. She is part of the collective CRAFT, member of VBKÖ, and her work has been presented in art and public spaces in Austria, Mexico, Germany, and Italy.

Karina Fernandez develops installation-based, process-oriented works using biological materials and discarded matter to address environmental issues. Her practice explores the sensory clash between organic and synthetic elements through assemblage and time-based operations, that she describe as “neo-conglomerates” – a term rooted in classical geology and oriented toward contemporary sedimentation processes in which human-produced materials become part of the environment. Karina Fernandez previously earned degrees in Fine Arts and Visual Arts in Buenos Aires, and completed her diploma in Digital Arts in 2023 in the class of Ruth Schnell at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

During the residency at AIL, Karina Fernandez develops House of Bioplastics as a material-based research lab in which bioplastic mixtures, plant fibers, and light-based setups are systematically tested and translated into spatial prototypes. The project includes the production and comparative arrangement of material samplers, objects, and large-scale bioplastic sheets in back-lit displays, the further development of a large-scale version of her previous work Bon(e)fire, as well as workshops and informal get-togethers focused on knowledge exchange around bioplastic and fiber-based processes.

www.karinafernandez.org
manuelapicallogil.com