StudioTako

zine , wetenschap & techniek , urban , tekenen , strips/cartoons , sociaal-maatschappelijk , samenwerking , residency , publieke ruimte , Publicatie , proces , performance , omgeving , natuur , mobiliteit , Lichaam , internationaal , Geschiedenis , Figuratief , Experimenteel , Ecologie , Documentair , DIY , Diversiteit , Diaspora , Design , cross-over , Communicatie , Community , collage , Artistiek onderzoek , Archieven

Lees voor

Tânia A. Cardoso, illustrator and urbanist, has completed her doctoral research at the University of Amsterdam. Her research, a product of this distinct blend of fields, focuses on the potential of illustration as a form of urban communication. This work is the culmination of her ground-based experience as an illustrator-researcher, exploring the poetics of everyday life and reportage art, and using illustration to co-produce and challenge the urban environment. The results of her research led her to open StudioTako, a studio for creating visual storytelling, urban chronicles, collective mapping and comics, and independent study. She is also the co-creator of the WARP (Walking as Research Practice) research group with Prof Alice Twemlow. Tânia's illustrations have been featured in several international exhibitions, including “Boerenzij” by Wapke Feenstra at TENT Rotterdam 2020 and “A Castle in England” in London 2017. Her work has been recognized with prestigious awards, such as the “Worldwide Picture Book Illustration Competition” in 2015 in the Netherlands, the “Gorsedh Kernow Creativity Award” in 2017 in Cornwall, UK, and a finalist position at the “Women Cartoonists International Award” in 2019 in Normandy, France. In 2024, she was Stadtekenares for the city of Rotterdam. The results of this work were exhibited in “Drawn Rotterdam: May I Exist?” at Kunsthal Rotterdam from 18 October 2024 to 16 February 2025.

**Buy my Love, Buy Cinerama: A Graphic Biography of Collective Memory and Urban Resistance** - Buy My Love, Buy Cinerama (2025–2026), developed with the support of CBK Rotterdam, is an interdisciplinary research project that explores the cultural, emotional, and political significance of Rotterdam’s historic Cinerama cinema through graphic reportage, archival research, and community engagement. Expanding my practice toward a research-driven and socially engaged methodology, I use drawing as both an investigative and narrative tool to “excavate” layers of collective memory embedded in architecture. The project resulted in a series of large-scale, materially layered artworks combining illustration, found objects, and archival material, presented in a site-specific installation at the cinema’s entrance. Functioning as a building biography, the work reflects on urban heritage, public space, and resistance, while forming the foundation for an ongoing graphic publication that reimagines storytelling through non-linear, sensory, and spatial approaches.

**Come to Your Senses: A Senses-based Learning Guide** - How do you turn academic texts and workshops into a comic book? For the publication Come to Your Senses (nai010 publishers), I translated sensory-based learning methodologies developed at Maastricht University (2021–2024) into a series of illustrated, step-by-step exercises. Through a comic-inspired visual language, I transformed academic content into accessible and engaging narratives that invite readers to activate their senses, seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling, as tools for learning and reflection. My approach focused on making abstract concepts tangible by visually suggesting texture, sound, and embodied experience, guiding readers through each exercise in an intuitive and playful way. The result is a publication that bridges theory and practice, in which illustration functions not only as an explanation but also as a sensory and pedagogical tool.

**Sterker Door Strijd (Stadstekenaar 2024)** - It all started with a feeling. Rotterdam’s official motto, “Sterker Door Strijd,” reflects the sense of gaining strength through adversity. “Sterker door strijd” is a sentiment frequently evoked in Rotterdam’s everyday life. The recent housing shortage and the growing gap between the inhabitants’ needs and the city hall’s vision for the city have once again brought this feeling to the forefront of discussion. Inhabitants are fighting for their right to the city, invoking the positive outlook that a destructive event left on their collective memories. In exhibition at the Kunsthal Rotterdam from 18 October 2024 to 16 February 2025.

**hirundinidae** - Zelfportret voor In Your Face 2.0, gemaakt met waterverf en kleurpotlood.

**How We Stopped and Listened to the Birds** - This comic journalism piece was created during the COVID-19 pandemic and published online by the platform Drawing the Times. Many images of empty cities worldwide were circulated, including Amsterdam. But how truthful were these images? This multi-chapter story challenges the narrative of the empty city in Amsterdam. It wonders about the connection of mass tourism to the disappearance of people on the streets through a historical overview and by collecting inhabitants' urban stories during this period.

**Grief/ Hope** - GRIEF/HOPE is an A5, 28-page illustrated zine developed for the exhibition SUN, DON'T RUSH TO BE RED. SON, DON'T RUSH TO BE READ at TENT Rotterdam (15 November 2025 – 22 February 2026), where it was available through the TENT Bookshop. The publication explores themes of grief, identity, and hope, drawing on a short story I wrote about love and loss. Through a sequence of drawings and text, the zine reflects a deeply personal yet widely relatable experience, positioning grief not as something to overcome, but as a lasting presence that shapes who we are. Rather than framing it as purely destructive, the work considers grief as a space through which other emotions, particularly hope, can emerge, suggesting that within loss lies the potential for transformation and renewal.

**Sterk** - Wandering around the word 'sterk' and its spatial presence in Rotterdam. It is an experimental artist's book that plays with its shape and content, creating a reading path that differs from the traditional reading comic experience.

**A tale of a (sustainable) city** - This series of comics focuses on the incredible and innovative ideas spanning the city of Rotterdam through a more than human lens. Some still exist today; others will stay in our imaginations and memories. The first part focuses on the fantastical aspects of an existent circular economy and how mushrooms gave that first impulse. The second part reflects on the role of water in the city and how the many floating projects allow us, the residents, to dream about a more sustainable future. The third and final part reflects on how agriculture and nature, in general, would move into the city and be integrated into its concrete jungle. Published online by SOLRAD, the Online Literary Magazine for Comics.

**Gulbekian Gardens** - Ink and charcoal pencil on paper, and digital finishing. Public Buildings illustrations, personal project.

**Leaving Prints** - Ink on paper and digital finishing. Submission for the Women Cartoonists Award 2019.

**If the House Fits** - Mix media collage on paper. Submission for the Worldwide Picturebook Competition 2015.

**Dancing Turtles** - Watercolour and coloured pencil, and digital finishing. Collaboration with Mintystock.

**Lisbon, girl and lady** - Watercolour and ink on paper. Personal project.

**Aqui, Ali e Acolá/ Here, There and Everywhere** - Pencil on transparent paper and digital painting. Illustrations for the children's picturebook Aqui, Ali e Acolá.

**Tania Alexandra Esteves Fernandes Cardoso** - Charcoal pencil on paper. Competition Submission for an illustration picturebook.

Stadstekenaar 010 - Sterker Door Strijd

Datum: 18-10-2024 t/m 16-02-2025

Locatie: Kunsthal Rotterdam

In samenwerking met: CBK Rotterdam, Stadsarchief Rotterdam, Kunsthal Rotterdam

It all began with a walk and a feeling. Sterker Door Strijd can be seen today under Rotterdam's coat of arms and it’s intrinsically connected to the city’s image. It exemplifies the resilience and strength of the city's inhabitants in rebuilding their city. Sterker Door Strijd has become a central aspect of the city's development, particularly in its architecture and urban planning. It represents a shift in the city's memory from pain to pride and hope for the future.

https://www.studiotako.net/

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