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>>> 23.01.2025

Gulbenkian Residence & Thanks for Nothing: Artist Lizette Chirrime, winner of the 2025 Residence

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Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation - Delegation in France

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Main Image :
Lizette Chirrrime

The Gulbenkian Foundation's Delegation in France has joined forces with Thanks for Nothing to launch a brand new artistic residency program designed to support and promote committed creative work. Its aim is to open up new horizons in France for Portuguese-speaking artists from the African continent, while promoting the inclusion of audiences far removed from culture.

A residence in the heart of Paris

Selected from a large number of applications, Mozambican artist Lizette Chirrime became the first winner of the Gulbenkian & Thanks for Nothing Residency - Creation and Commitment. Scheduled for May and June 2025, this two-month residency will take place in Paris, thanks to the support of Poush and the Kadist Foundation. It will showcase artistic practices that address social and environmental issues, and is in line with the desire shared by the two organizations to highlight art as a vehicle for change.

A participatory and supportive scheme

In order to widen access to creation, the residency includes a solidarity program aimed at associations and schools. During her stay, LizetteChirrime will lead co-creation workshops at the Centre Pompidou, where she will design a participatory work in close collaboration with people who are usually “far removed” from cultural offerings. The result of this collective work will then be presented and publicly reactivated at the Centre Pompidou on May 17, 2025, offering a unique experience of dialogue and sharing around art.

Portrait of a Committed Artist

Born in 1973 in Maputo, Mozambique, Lizette Chirrime pursued business studies until the age of 17. Without any formal artistic training, she developed a passion for creation early on, experimenting with painting and sewing. After her first solo exhibition in Mozambique in 2004, she joined a three-month residency at Greatmore Studios in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2005.

Today, her monumental textile works on canvas combine painting, sewing, and fabric collage, incorporating printed textiles such as tshwe-tshwe and other traditional African patterns. Her approach blends abstraction with spiritual expression, making her art a therapeutic tool and a message of hope and healing. “My work is guided and inspired by water, femininity, and a mix of joy and sadness,” says the artist.

A Shared Commitment

By welcoming Lizette Chirrime, the Gulbenkian & Thanks for Nothing – Creation and Engagement Residency reaffirms its commitment to fostering dialogue between social and environmental issues and artistic practice. This new program embodies the values of the Gulbenkian Foundation and Thanks for Nothing: promoting knowledge, inclusion, and togetherness through the transformative power of art.

Learn more: https://gulbenkian.pt/paris/