4-7pm

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Artist Francisca Sosa López hosted a free workshop during which participants learnt how to make papier-mâché mangoes while listening to Venezuelan music and discussing each other’s family stories of migration.

The workshop took place amongst Francisca’s installation at Peer, an immersive shrine to the tropical jungle and mountains of Caracas in which she grew up.

Francisca’s work addresses the complicated relationship that she has with her home country of Venezuela and the socio-political issues plaguing the country. For example, the current migration crisis, which has to date seen 6 million people displaced from their country.

Francisca originally started creating papier-mâché mangoes for her project Mangoes 4 Millions, a fundraising drive to support Venezuelans through the health, economic, social, political and migration crises in their country. The mangoes represent the wealth of natural resources in the country that rather than being used as a way to thrive have been left to rot.

During this workshop, Francisca guided participants through the process of creating their own mango and encouraged them to write their own family history or migration story on a tag to attach to the fruit. Once dried, the fruits were hung in the trees outside of Peer, as a way to celebrate migration stories, diversity and the wealth of the community.

The event was part of a showcase exhibition of work by Evangelia Dimitrakopoulou and Francisca Sosa López, two artists completing Acme’s early career programme during which they were provided a yearlong studio residency at Acme’s Warton House studios in 2021 after graduating from MA courses at London-based art colleges. The exhibition marked the sixth year of partnership between Peer and Acme. This important partnership offered emerging artists a significant opportunity at a crucial point in their career to exhibit at an acclaimed gallery and benefit from mentoring and guidance provided by Peer’s team.