Peau-Territoire
Julia da Mota

Skin: the thin and resilient limit that separates us from our immediate surroundings. Also, that which protects us, and guarantees we are not one with the rest. To what extent does a surface cease to be a body and a landscape begins? This question is central to Julia da Mota's recent works, where she explores how skin can be perceived not merely as a physical and protective barrier, but as a dynamic and expressive boundary that connects us to a larger territory.

Julia da Mota develops an intimate body of work in painting and printmaking that primarily comes from the artist’s relation with her most immediate surroundings. Drawing inspiration from Latin American traditions of non-objective art, her practice originates from her desire to create imagined spaces and build places of resistance.

Often using water-based mediums, earth pigments, and natural fabrics in her practice, Da Mota's use of locally sourced materials deepens the connections with the place where the works are made, together with its cultural and geological history. During her residency at Cité des Arts, the artist worked with mineral pigments such as Nice green earth or Venetian red earth, as well as ultramarine blue, a pigment historically charged with the notions of power disputes and territory.

Julia da Mota (b. 1988, São Paulo, Brazil) was in residence at Cité internationale des Arts as part of the "2-12" programme.