Making Ex Libris

Our current artist in residency, Inu Bere, cordially invites you to a linocut workshop in which we make ex libris. The workshop is open to everyone – you don’t need experiences with linocut. 

An ex libris is a small label stuck on the first page of a book to indicate ownership. From Latin “ex libris meis”, meaning from the books of, or is part of my books. Like a stamp, its design identifies the owner and their personality, such as profession or taste, or memory. Traditionally ex libris were made using metal engraving, or chalcogravure. They are also made with woodcuts or wood engravings. Nowadays alternative media, like linocut, are used. 

Through this workshop, participants are invited to reflect on the current situations in which the world finds itself, and face the challenge of capturing this in just a simple image. The goal is not to stimulate the desire to possess, but to remember or recover (beautiful) memories and feel part of the symbol that we acquired with a book or an object, for example. To Inu, making an ex libris is trying or learning to summarize a story, a memory, a reflection, or a gesture, characteristic of oneself or someone else, in a small image. It is a gesture of hope for the future. 

Inu Bere is the artist name of Sinorino Bere de Jesus, who comes from Aileu, a municipality in the interior of Timor-Leste. He is an emerging contemporary artist who graduated from the University of Vale do Paraíba, in São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil, with a full degree in Visual Arts. Inu works in the field of engraving, painting, installation, sculpture and performance. He began his artistic career in 2012, participating in several national and international exhibitions, in Portugal, Macau, Japan, Brazil, and Timor-Leste. Since 2012 he has been an active member of Projeto Montanha, a non-governmental organization, working in the area of art, education and tourism with the intention of training young Timorese people. Today, Inu Bere is the lead person responsible for Projeto Montanha. Inu always seeks to reflect in his works, his origins, culture, but also the new cultures he has acquired over time. His artistic works deal with political, philosophical, religious themes and also deal with culture and identity. He navigates between two worlds, of good and evil, of day and night, of old culture and new culture, of colonization and decolonization, of freedom and non-freedom. In his works, Inu offers intimate reflections of everyday life to the viewer.