Atelier Balancê uses hands as tools to interweave research, craft and art.
Practice.
Based on ancient and traditional know-how, Atelier Balancê applies basket weaving techniques on found materials such as natural fibers and discarded materials.
With the intention to valorize and safeguard this cultural heritage, learnings and insights are shared through workshops, and by converting them into new shapes and objects. Stories become tangible.
Atelier Balancê is an honouring to slowness and traditional craftmanship, a sculptural exploration, and a call for ecological awareness.
© Kali Fawaz
© Nicholas Hannes
Biography.
I’m Ysaline Ophoff, born in Belgium and currently based in Portugal. I graduated as an architect at LUCA School of Arts in Brussels in 2014, followed by some years of experience in Belgian architecture studios.
In 2019 I decided to put my fascination for crafts into practice and traveled to the Brazilian Amazon, where I got immersed in various traditional basket weaving techniques with local basket weavers. By discovering the different layers of this craft – the technical know-how, the embodied nature, as well as the social and cultural aspects of it - my curiosity and desire to explore it more only grew.
In 2020 I founded Atelier Balancê.
'balancê' is a swinging movement like a canoe in a river, a hammock on a boat, palm trees in the wind or the waves of the sea. It's a dance, a flowing movement, ginga. It's warm yellow and deep orange, an early morning glow, an evening sun. It's a mood, a mindset.
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