The Feminine in Art – Textile Without Borders
Accademia d’Ungheria in Rome, IT
06.12.2024 – 28.02.2025

Hungarian and Italian contemporary textile artists on display in Rome

It can be visited until February 28, 2025, at the Accademia d’Ungheria in Rome / Collegium Hungaricum Róma in Palazzo Falconieri, Il Femminile nell’Arte | Tessile senza confini (The Feminine in Art | Textile Without Borders), an exhibition curated by Eleonora Pasqualetti and Márton Keppel, inaugurated with a large audience with presentation by Krisztina Landos, Director of the Accademia d’Ungheria in Rome; Zoltán Rátóti, Vice President of the Hungarian Academy of Arts; Barbara Pavan, contemporary fiber and textile art curator; and, of course, Márton Keppel, art historian and co-curator of the exhibition.

The exhibition creates a dialogue between the works of three Italian artists — Lisa Mara Batacchi, Silvia Beccaria, and Mara Di Giammatteo — and those of Hungarian artists Edit Balogh, Hajnal Baráth, Eszter Bényi, Zsuzsa Ferenczi, Beáta Hauser, Katalin Kiss, Lúcia Kiss, Krisztina Kókay, Ida Lencsés, Indira Máder, Judit Nagy, Eleonóra Pasqualetti, Lívia Pápai, Verona Szabó, Katalin Zelenak, Judit Pázmány, Éva Sipos, Eszter Kneisz, and Nóra Tápai.

“The exhibition”, remarked Keppel during his speech, “represents both a starting point and a destination for a journey beyond borders. Metaphorically, it begins with the transcendence of artistic genres; literally, it aims to unify art beyond barriers. This exhibition breaks down geographical and conceptual boundaries, materializing as a contemporary vision of art.

The universal language of art fosters dialogue among different nations, while its expressive medium creates unity across artistic genres. The concept of borderlessness takes shape in this exhibition through textile art. The exhibition’s purpose is to reveal to visitors how, through the works of Hungarian tapestry artists, national, gender, technical, and cultural differences can dissolve. In Hungary, there is a community of artists primarily dedicated to tapestry-making. They work with traditional techniques, yet their works address the most pressing questions of the zeitgeist. These are members of the Hungarian Tapestry Artists Association, whose works were selected for this exhibition at the Accademia d’Ungheria in Rome.

These works share a common trait: they simultaneously and integrally represent multiple levels of contemporary art. The members of the Hungarian Tapestry Artists Association have expanded the technique, process, and realization of tapestry into a true philosophy. (…) In the three rooms of the exhibition, textile works are displayed in distinct sections, representing the conceptual and formal trends of modern tapestry art while reflecting on the contemporary art landscape.

These works, created by twenty Hungarian artists, are enriched by the creations of Italian artists, perfectly integrated into the context of the individual rooms. The balance between them is absolute. The exhibition’s title, concerning the concepts of tapestry art and feminine art as boundary-breaking forces, is fully realized. (…) I believe the significance of The Feminine in Art | Textile Without Borders lies in tapestry art’s ability to offer an alternative to the demands of modernity through the renewal of tradition. This necessity is evident both in creation and reception.”

“For millennia,” adds Barbara Pavan, “the two adjectives feminine and textile have been associated and relegated to the ‘minor arts’ precisely because of their feminine connotation. These categories and definitions demand a more objective reflection today on textile languages applied to art and a more contemporary and evolved approach that allows us to reinterpret the textile/feminine and art/textile pairings. This includes exploring their various facets, considering their essential link with ancient textile traditions reimagined in a modern and current light.

Textile art emerges as a medium with immense potential, capable of delving into the most complex social and cultural issues. The very nature of textiles and weaving—the first human technology—as a universal heritage rooted in the history of all humanity and every community, makes it an ideal expressive medium for investigating the multifaceted aspects of reality. Simultaneously, the textile matrix, with its deep connection to the concepts of identity and culture, offers fertile ground for continuous engagement that evolves towards an emancipatory and assertive interpretation of the female role.

This exhibition thus becomes an opportunity to redefine terms like limit, boundary, category, and even the concept of definition itself, overcoming them and connecting Italian and Hungarian artists in an uninterrupted dialogue. This dialogue explores and questions the world we live in through ancient techniques and materials to which art lends a new and multifaceted voice—simultaneously choral, unique, and individual.

In their works, the invited Italian artists offer reflections on the value and meaning of memory and identity in the era of technology, globalization, and AI. They do so through weaving, which here remains faithful to itself yet—like thousands of years ago—continues to renew itself, adapting to its time, reinterpreting, and anticipating its evolutions. Is weaving becoming art, or is art becoming weaving? In this exhibition, the observer discovers this question as open-ended and adaptable, transcending all preconceived limits. It becomes plural and universal while maintaining the rigor of its techniques, following a thread that invisibly binds and connects individuals, generations, peoples, their histories, memories, and futures.”

A trilingual catalogue (Italian, English, Hungarian) was published.

Free admission.

Accademia d’Ungheria in Rome, IT
Via Giulia, 1
00186 Roma RM
Italy