Presentation of the project ‘Mantle of the Annunciation: surrender, chalice (be silent), pour forth the Word made flesh’.

The project “REdesCOBRIMENTOs: body-clothing-environment relationships” by the artist and researcher, Tássia Murad Abreu (Federal University of São João del-Rei – UFSJ), is organising the event “Mantle of the Annunciation: surrender, chalice (be silent), pour forth the incarnate Word”, an interactive art installation comprising an open sculpture and a video mapping projection on the façade of the Braga Cathedral Tower, on Rua do Souto (next to the Capela da Glória), which will run throughout 27 and 28 June (starting at 9.00 am and ending at 11.00 pm).

The video mapping of the Mantle of the Annunciation on the tower’s façade will take place on both evenings, 27 and 28 June (starting at 9.30 pm and ending at 11 pm). This projection will cover the façade with a collective display of digital lace patterns created by passers-by and participants via the interactive digital interface ‘Tear Mercês’, developed in partnership with Igino de Oliveira and Flávio Luís Schiavoni (UFSJ) from the ALICE group (Arts Lab in Interfaces, Computers and Everything else), which can be accessed using the participants’ own mobile phones. There will also be sound and visual performances in partnership with Clara Torres (vocals), Leonor Vanzeler (cello), Luís Pinto and Pedro Gaspar (sound recording and editing), and Guilherme Cruz and Sílvio Ferreira (visuals – Media Arts – UMinho).
‘Donning the Mantle of the Annunciation’ will be the proposed means of ritualising the experience articulated in the work’s subtitle — surrender, chalice (be silent), pour forth the incarnate word. The installation of the sculpture, made from a mantle woven with Mercês lace (developed in the Alto das Mercês community, São João del-Rei, Minas Gerais), invites passers-by and participants to become part of the work through their bodies. It calls upon each participant to don the mantle and clothe themselves in meanings, thereby communicating them to others and alongside others. The aim is that, through this act of dressing and surrendering to the experience, each participant becomes, in that moment, both the receiver and the sender of the messages they feel compelled to communicate. In the Tear Mercês app (link: tear), when you begin creating the digital lace, you can choose to express ‘Passions’ by using the colour red, or to herald ‘New Times’ by using the colour blue, and send these along with your messages to the Sé Tower. The projection of participants’ digital lacework and messages onto the extended body — the façade of the Sé Tower — will embody the collective’s sentiments in a unique textile pattern of diverse colours and lacework woven by the participants (the collective body).

Using the data and audiovisual records resulting from the art installation and social intervention, Tássia Murad Abreu, a visiting researcher at CECS, supervised by Prof. Dr Celso Tondin (UFSJ) and Prof. Dr Ana Cristina Pereira (CECS), moves on to the data analysis phase, based on the relationships established between body, clothing and environment during the interactive and artistic occupation of this public space in the city of Braga.

This work was carried out with the support of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel – Brazil (CAPES) – Funding Code 001

[Posted: 22 June 2026]