Born in Alcoi (Spain), I studied History of Art (Degree) and Management of Cultural Heritage (Postgraduate) at the Universitat de València (Spain). From 2002 to 2004, I lived in Paris as Erasmus student of the Université Paris IV Sorbonne – Institut des Arts et d´Archéologie in order to conclude my studies in History of Arts and and to work as trainee at the Galerie Frank Elbaz, Théâtre du Frêne Company, and at the 2nd Edition of the International Festival on Urban Art and the Urban Cultures International Meeting as volunteer.
At that time, I started to develop a photography story called “Patrimoni Mort” (Dead Heritage), focused on the forgotten industrial heritage, mainly old textile factories, of Alcoi (Alicante, Spain). At that time, my dream was to become Anthropologist Photographer.
Three months later, I received a granted internship called Tandem Programme, a programme jointly launched by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Spain and France, to work in a cultural development project being implemented by MADA NGO in North Lebanon. In this framework, in cooperation with Ludovic, my tandem, we made an inventory (catalogue and photographies) of traditional architecture and archaeological sites, designed cultural touristic tours and made a research on the values of the local traditional architecture including some proposals for enhancing these amazing houses. It was a three months wonderful experience and I made hundred of pictures of the Lebanese traditional architecture.
In 2006, I travelled to Morocco, to work as Culture and Development Project Manager for the Spanish International Development Cooperation Agency (AECID) at its Technical Cooperation Office (OTC) based in Rabat. At that time I was in charge of the cultural programme of the Embassy but also monitored and evaluated nice projects on culture for development. Meanwhile, I made a Master Degree on Strategies, Agents and Policies of cooperation and development at HEGOA Institute on development and international cooperation.
A great experience came out in 2009 when I started to work as consultant for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Fund in Morocco. My responsibility was to support the programmes teams to monitor the progress of two joint programmes: “Cultural Heritage and the Creative Industries as a Vehicle for Development” and “Fight against gender-based violence through the empowerment of women and girls“.
In 2010, I moved to Portugal and worked on intercultural dialogue and women´s empowerment at the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe and the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC). In this framework, I organised international events in Belgrade, Istanbul, La Valletta, Lisbon, Rabat, Tetouan and Tunis (forums, conferences, workshops, summer schools) and developed relevant networks (Euro-Med Women Network).
In 2015, I´ve started to work with the Global Platform for Syrian Students and Dialogue Cafe Association. With Dialogue Café, I´ve coordinated debates on creative hubs and social entrepreneurship, women´s empowerment & creative industries among many other issues, as well as organised a global exchange of crafts makers.
Among these projects and wishes, I have launched in 2016 a Craftivism Lab at the European Cultural Foundation as a platform to promote and share information about craftivists initiatives promoting social change, collective empowerment, personal development and networking.
As crafts lover, I attended several crafts workshops, in particular Portuguese traditional knitting, creative sewing, Portuguese and Japanese embroidery, creative weaving, quilting, Portuguese and Korean Patchwork, Japanese Nuno technique of felting silk and so on…! Because if you wish to support women´s artisans and cultural heritage, you need to understand the value of their work.
Moreover I have recently launched my own project of handcrafted garments inspired by cultural heritage and committed to sustainability. My main services are tailormade clothing and quilting.
In parallel, I´m developing this multidisciplinary project called Mus-Art, which includes a digital gallery aimed at promoting women´s artisans, a platform where sharing opportunities and initiatives to enhance artisan know-how and heritage, but also a research on artisanship as a vector for women´s empowerment, which I am formally doing within my PhD in Design at IADE – Universidade Europeia of Lisbon.
musart research lab 