Beyond the Figure: Elvira Voynarovska continues her Villa Swagatam journey in Catalonia

Following her residency with Jaipur Rugs in India and the presentation of her work as part of Ce qui se trame. Histoires tissées entre l’Inde et la France at the Mobilier National in Paris, artist Elvira Voynarovska unveils a new chapter in her artistic practice with Beyond the Figure, a solo exhibition opening on 6 June 2026 at Terra Remota, Catalonia.

Developed in continuity with the research initiated during her Villa Swagatam residency in Rajasthan, where she immersed herself alongside women weavers and artisans connected to Jaipur Rugs, the exhibition extends a body of work exploring gesture, textile memory, and the relationship between drawing and material.

At the heart of this evolution lies Ladies from the Back (2025), a series born from observing the silhouettes of women at the loom in Manpura Macheri in Rajasthan - their saris, folds, movements, and the silent language embedded in acts of weaving. This project marked an important turning point in Voynarovska’s practice: the passage from drawing to textile.

Working in collaboration with Jaipur Rugs, one of these pastel compositions was transformed into a hand-knotted textile piece crafted in wool and bamboo silk. Entirely handmade by artisans, the work materialised a complete creative cycle, observing, drawing, transmitting, and ultimately transforming gesture into matter.

Beyond the Figure deepens this dialogue. Alongside existing oil pastel series, Voynarovska presents a new corpus of textile works exploring the encounter between oil pastel line and woven surface through monumental wall carpets developed in collaboration with Philanthropes Tapis, an artisan workshop based in the Loiret region of France.

The exhibition reflects an artistic language increasingly situated between drawing and textile, image and materiality, gesture and transmission, extending questions first explored during Villa Swagatam and carried forward through sustained collaborations across India and France.

The exhibition is from 6 June 2026 during Terra Remota’s Festa d’Estiu until 6 September 2026 and is supported by the Région Centre–Val de Loire.