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Ivan Hunga Garcia (b. 2000, Portugal) develops a multidisciplinary practice across fashion, speculative design and biotechnology, focusing on generative processes and the sensorial qualities of material realms. As an Haute Gardener and wet-lab practitioner, these complementary roles inform a practice concerned not with designing “objects” as fixed entities, but with cultivating xenobiologies in collaboration with organic intelligences.

Grounded in research-led and critical approaches, Garcia is currently based in Barcelona and enrolled in the Master in Design for Emergent Futures, organised by IAAC and ELISAVA Barcelona School of Design and Engineering (2025–2027). They are also a regular invited pedagogue in the field of biofabrication, having taught and lectured at institutions including ESAD, António Arroio, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the University of Florence’s Conferenza Internazionale UniFi.

Garcia’s artistic research first gained visibility through the Sangue Novo competition (2021–2022), where they presented pieces made from SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast). Since then, they have participated in several editions and events associated with Lisbon Fashion Week, including presentations at Espaço Mitra (2022), Galeria Monumental (2023) and Pensão Amor (2024), where the work assumed a performative character and immersive storytelling.

At fifteen, Garcia moved to Lisbon to study textile production at António Arroio Art School, later graduating in Fashion Design from ESAD Matosinhos (2018–2021). Alongside their academic training, they interned with Ayres Bespoke Tailor in Porto. In 2024, they expanded their technical practice through a mechatronics course and an internship with the Robotics Team at CITEVE, the Technological Centre for Textile and Clothing of Portugal. This multidisciplinary exchange informs a hybrid methodology that brings together artisanal craft, technological innovation and ecological thinking in a forward-looking making practice.

Their work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions, including Dirty Looks at the Barbican Centre, London (2025–2026); F.A.U.X, a solo exhibition at Saco Azul / Maus Hábitos, Porto (2025); Laboratórios de Design at the Funchal Arts & Design Biennial (2025); Corporalidade (Matéria dos Sentidos) at FACE – Espinho Municipal Museum (2024); Object Permanence at Lab.yrinth (2023); O Último Prefixo at O Instituto (2022); Next Generation at WOW – Museum of Fashion and Fabric (2021); and Emergências at Contextile – Contemporary Textile Art Biennial (2018). Their first textile residency took place at Casa da Cerca – Contemporary Art Center in Almada in 2018, marking the beginning of an ongoing commitment to experimentation as a critical and sensorial method.

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Images: Ugo Camera / ModaLisboa Fucking Young! Gala Galinha

Images:
Ugo Camera / ModaLisboa
Fucking Young!
Gala Galinha