SUPPORTING PROGRAMME
GUIDED TOURS
Guided tour through the 17 International Triennial of Tapestry
Curator: Marta Kowalewska
Place: Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, building D (venue 1)
The International Triennial of Tapestry is the oldest and the most important presentation of phenomena connected with the medium of textiles, invariably hosted and organised by the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź since 1975. The event is cyclical, held every 3 years. In 2022 will take place for the 17th time.
ITT presents works of creators all over the world, specialising in textiles in their layer of significance or their formal layer, finding in it an inexhaustible source of inspirations, contexts, forms most fully describing the compexity of the world.
The theme of the 17 Triennial edition is „Entangled State”. This term comes from the dictionary of quantum mechanics and although it does not determine exactly the reality experienced by us by means of senses, it seems to define at the metaphoric level a range of phenomena we observe in our world.
This year the Triennial and the main exhibition is accompanied by two displays: The National Exhibition of the Polish Tapestry (curator: Jakub Gawkowski, Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź) and the 4th YTAT Young Textile Art Triennial (curator: Dominika Krogulska-Czekalska, Marta Kowalewska, City Art Gallery in Łódź – Centre of Art Promotion).
More inforomation: https://cmwl.pl/public/informacje/17-miedzynarodowe-triennale-tkaniny,226
.
Guided tour through the permanent exhibitions "City - Fashion - Machines"
view into the permanent exhibition "City-Fashion-Maschine", Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz, photo: Dariusz Kulesza, Central Museum of Lodz
view into the permanent exhibition "City-Fashion-Maschine", Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz, photo: Dariusz Kulesza, Central Museum of Lodz
Place: Central Museum of Textiles Lodz (venue 1)
The CITY-FASHION-MACHINE exhibition is a story about Łódź shaped by the textile industry, about its energy, dynamics, ups and downs and about the everyday life of its inhabitants. On three floors and over 2500 m2 we present almost 400 objects from our collections.
The first floor is dedicated to textile machines and techniques. It is here that you will feel the atmosphere of factory halls from a bygone era and learn what conditions prevailed in them. There, in the Laboratory, with the help of a microscope you will look at the structure of fabrics and weaves, and even try to spin on the spindle or weave on the loom.
The second floor will take you on a further journey in time. Here you will see how this city and everyday life changed. You will trace its history from the establishment of large factories, through their nationalization, strikes, bankruptcy, unemployment and privatization, to the revitalization of factory buildings.
The second floor is devoted to fashion. This is Piotrkowska Street - the longest shopping passage in Europe, a fashion catwalk for dressed-up inhabitants of Łódź. Store windows, neon signs from the 1970s, and signboards catch the eye. Mannequins wearing exclusive outfits of well-known polish brands, such as Telimena, Nestor, Moda Polska, compete for your attention with clothes from Central - famous department store, and from home tailors' workshops. Be careful, or you may you can lose your head in the bazaar!
You won't be walking along a marked path through the exhibition, you can choose any direction you want, so don't be afraid to stray.
.
Permanent exhibition “Microhistories. Łódź and its People” + presentation of machines in motion
Lodz City Culture Park, hosting the „Microhistories. Łódź and its People” exhibition , photo: Central Museum of Lodz
Presentation of machines in motion, Central Museum of Textiles Lodz, photo: Christina Leitner
Place: Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz (venue 1)
The „Microhistories. Łódź and its People” exhibition is located in the Łódź City Culture Park, which is a part of the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź. It tells the story of multicultural textile Łódź from the perspective of its residents’ everyday life. Its heroes’ fates are presented over the 19th and 20th century against the background of historical and social events. These microhistories were inspired by family memories, diaries and interviews being the record of oral history by the eldest Łódź residents. The multi-narrative tale begins in 1895 with the story of Florentyna Bennich, the mother of a well-known local factory owner, and ends in 1985 with the story of Halina Klima, a retired Russian teacher. Visiting the exhibition, you will learn about the Olszyckis working at Poznański’s factory, see how the everyday life of the large Jewish family of Chaja and Abram Piernik looked like, peer into the tailor’s workshop of Mr Liberski and the flat of militiaman Kondraciuk in the times of the Polish People's Republic.
Various human fates, ups and downs, joys and hardships of everyday life. The narrative is cemented by a common thread - the picture of textile Łódź, the transformation of a dynamically evolving city that determined the lives of its residents. In addition to reconstructed residential interiors and craftsman’s workshops from a given period, the exhibition offers context rooms that refer the presented microhistories to broader realities of living in Łódź.
Presentation of machines in motion
Deafening noise and clattering of machines, the smell of heated grease, huge rooms with hundreds of looms, such were the Łódź weaving mills at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The exhibition not only shows the scenery, but also the daily, extremely difficult and demanding work of a weaver. The display of running machines usually makes a great impression on the visitors, even more so by the stage design elements of the exposition – large format photos of a big 19th century weaving mill.
Compared to modern machines, the looms were not technically complicated, and the simpler the device, the more work a man had to do, and the more skilled he had to be. This work required experience and concentration - the weaver had to perform all tasks quickly and confidently. At the Machines in Motion exhibition are six looms from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and two looms from the 1970s.
.
The National Exhibition of the Polish Tapestry 2022
View into the National Exhibition of the Polish Tapestry 2022, photo: Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz
View into the National Exhibition of the Polish Tapestry 2022, photo: Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz
Curator: Jakub Gawkowski
Place: Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, building A, IV floor (venue 1)
This exhibition aims to highlight the positioning of textile art within the broader Polish artistic landscape. It is both an exhibition of tapestry and about tapestry; a story about its definitions, functions, materiality and the ways it communicates the intimate, the distant, and the forgotten. Artists today are neither beholden to, nor feel constrained by, any boundaries between, or definitions of, artistic disciplines. However, looking at tapestry as a set of practices, concepts and stories provides an opportunity to learn and think about the art that surrounds us and the life associated with it.
Textile art today engages with fundamental problems: safety, the formation and protection of identity, and the determination of one’s place in the world and in relation to the immediate environment. Textiles’ basic functions, such as covering the body, dressing wounds, or building infrastructure and shelters, are especially important in this moment of planetary ecological and economic crises as well as the ongoing war. The idea of an Entangled State – the watchword of this year’s ITT – references a world tormented by anxiety and convulsions, beset in a state of interconnectivity. Entanglement precludes passive observation, and the path to changing the world leads through the awareness of one’s own position in the relationships between beings. The National Exhibition of Polish Tapestry operates within this context.
The dynamics of Material Fatigue emerge from two intertwining themes. One is centered around intimacy and closeness, with all the ambivalence, fragility, and helplessness they involve, alongside the emancipatory powers that come with them. The other engages the social existence of tapestry; its connections to memory and nostalgia within both the individual and collective spheres. This exhibition features works which reflect on the origins of textiles and demonstrate the re-use and rejuvenation of the lives of rediscovered objects.
These artists’ visual vocabulary reflects the experience of a multi-layered, makeshift world where precarity and provisionality necessitate improvisation. The works presented here reflect practices and situations in which the artistic gestures of stitching, sewing, and weaving require incessant work with body and memory.
.
Guided tour in Urban complex “Księży Młyn” (English "Pastor’s Mill")
workers settlement at “Księży Młyn” (English "Pastor’s Mill"), photo: UML
Urban complex “Księży Młyn” (English "Pastor’s Mill"), photo: Pawel Wojtyczka
Place: “Księży Młyn” (English "Pastor’s Mill") (venue 5)
Factory-residential complex on the River Jasień was built in the 19th century by Karol Scheibler, the richest industrialist of Lodz. It was a self-sufficient city inside a city modeled on English industrial settlements. It had factory buildings, including a huge castle-like cotton mill, warehouses, workers’ houses, school, fire station, two hospitals, gasworks, factory club, shops, houses of the owners, and a railway siding. All that was placed along straight cobbled streets and it was architecturally coherent.
In a narrow sense, Księży Młyn is the name of a settlement, huge cotton mill and workers’ houses with a street, located on the western side of Przędzalniana Street, between Tymienieckiego and Fabryczna streets and Źródliska Park I. In a broader sense, it includes the entire urban complex which had formed up to the 1920’s, including the Scheibler and Grohman families’ estates. In 1971 the urban complex was recognized as an industrial architecture monument.
The fall of the textile industry in Lodz forced the change of the settlement’s function. Today Księży Młyn is a magnet for tourists, artists, and photographers. The remarkable post-factory interiors are venue for interesting cultural events, festivals, fashion shows, while the former mansions have been converted into museums.
POST CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS
.
Kyrgyz Felting Workshop with Karin Altmann
Kyrgyz Ala-Kiyiz Felting, is a pure felting class and teaches the creation of a seat cushion (40x40 cm) using the Ala-kiyiz technique, in which the patterns are felted, giving them a watercolour-like softness and picturesque quality. In Kyrgyzstan, these felts are mainly used for everyday life, rather than for decoration. As you practice in this small format, you will acquire all the knowledge you need to be able to produce a large carpet yourself. During the workshop Karin will also discuss traditional designs and the meaning of patterns and colours. Because with their patterns and symbolism, Kyrgyz felt carpets form their own language. They combine the intellectual and emotional as well as analytical and intuitive understandings of their producers. The tradition of felting can be seen as a process of life and self-reflection, in which both the meaning of the motives and the thoughts of the practitioner play an important role. Karin will guide you through the creative process, teaching how Kyrgyz felt art has the ability to create images through which the invisible become visible.
Karin Altmann is an Austrian textile artist and researcher and has been teaching in the Department of Textile Arts at the University of Applied Arts Vienna since 2004. In addition, she initiated a number of transcultural projects with international partners from Kyrgyzstan, Bhutan, Mexico, Japan, Ghana and Mali as well as art projects with children, people with disabilities, refugees and women in psychological and social needs. She is well known for researching the interconnection between art and spirituality, pursued in her 2015 published book, entitled ’Fabric of Life – Textile Arts in Bhutan’, or her earlier thesis on ’Kyrgyz Felt Art in the Context of Nomadism and Shamanism’. Theory and practise always relate to, extend and deepen each other. Her knowledge and skills in felting were transmitted to her through joint practical work with Kyrgyz women during her research time in Kyrgyzstan. In her own work, Karin Altmann has stepped away from traditional Kyrgyz designs, signs and symbols as she feels they are not her right to use. She prefers a simple graphic expression, bringing her passion for natural dyes to her work.
Max. 12 participants
Costs: 70 Euro per person (including material costs)
.
The Bayeux Stitch Workshop with Tanja Boukal
Pattern Weaving Workshop with Associate professor: Dominika Krogulska-Czekalska and Anna Grabowska, Robert Spychała - technical assistance
Pattern Weaving Workshop with Associate professor: Dominika Krogulska-Czekalska and Anna Grabowska, Robert Spychała - technical assistance
The term ‘Bayeux stitch’ describes the laid and couched work that was used across Europe throughout the medieval ages. This specific embroidery stitch is easy to execute and suitable for creating tapestries and large embroideries and derives from the Norman and English tradition. It is very economical in terms of the threads used as it is executed with only little thread on the reverse of the fabric. Allegedly, in the 11th century, it was used in the famous Bayeux tapestry.
In our workshop we explore all aspects of the Bayeux Stitch technique. An outline stitch is embroidered to make the drawings as well as the letters. These drawings are "colored" with laid and satin stitch. As for the original embroidery made with 7 dominant colours of wool thread on linen, during the workshop, you will work with the same type of threads and colours to explore the possibilities and limitations of this ancient technique.
No prior experience necessary, all materials (Frames, needles, fabrics, threads) are provided (additional cost of 20 €), please bring your own scissors.
Tanja Boukal, born 1976 in Vienna, lives, thinks and works in Vienna, Austria, HBLA f. Fashion and Clothing Technology / Arts and Crafts, 1996 - 1999 Studies "Stage Design" at the Vienna Art School, 2002 - 2008: Head of the class "temporary interior design" at the Vienna Art School, since 2000 assistant at the Summer Academy Salzburg;
Main exhibitions:
2018: Leaden Circles Dissolved in the Air, Elgiz Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
2017: Threads of Connection, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, USA
2017: A World Not Ours / Part 2, La Kunsthalle, Mulhouse, France
2016: No one has any intention of building a wall, Kunstverein Augsburg, Germany
2016: A World Not Ours, Art Space Pythagorion, Samos, Greece
2015/2016: Demonstrating Minds, KIASMA - Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
2014: What to Do When Hell Breaks Loose, AB Gallery, Lucerne, Switzerland
2013/2014: Political Correctness, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria
More information: www.boukal.at
Max. 15 participants
Costs: 60 Euro
.
Transfer Printing by Hand and Screen Printing Workshop with Prof. Ludwika Żytkiewicz – Ostrowska
Transfer printing by hand and screen printing workshop with Prof. Ludwika Żytkiewicz – Ostrowska, photos by the Strzemiński Academy of Art Łódź
Transfer printing by hand and screen printing workshop, Prof. Ludwika Żytkiewicz – Ostrowska, photos by the Strzemiński Academy of Art Łódź
The program of the workshop involves a range of topics concerning different functions of textile: its place in the field of design, its integration with fashion and its artistic merit. During the workshop participants will be introduced to 2 techniques of creating patterns on textiles: transfer printing by hand and screen printing. Participants will individually choose printing techniques and the manner in which they want to combine them. There will be a possibility to creatively mix this technique with classical method (with readymade screens). Participants will have an opportunity to apply print on different types of materials, e.g. polyester or cotton and on various kinds of objects, such as cushions, bags or articles of clothing.
Ludwika Żytkiewicz – Ostrowska designer and visual artist specializing in the textile art, professor at the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz/Poland. Currently she leads the Textile Decoration Media Studio. She is an author of 11 solo exhibitions and she participated in 200 group exhibitions in Poland and abroad. Many times awarded ex: Bronze Medal, 9th International Fiber Art Biennale 2016, 'From Lausanne To Beijing' in Shenzhen/China, 2016; Nominated for Awards of the Central Museum of Textile by the Jury of the 14th International Triennale of Tapestry in Lodz /Poland, 2013; Scholarship of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage 7th edition Program 'Young Poland’10 /Poland, 2010; Cross-cultural residences of emerging textile artists in framework of the 'European Contemporary Tapestry and Textile Art', residency at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels/Belgium, 2008
more information: https://www.asp.lodz.pl/index.php/pl/litera-z2/2634-ludwika-zytkiewicz-ostrowska
Place: Strzemiński Academy of Art Łódź (venue 2)
Link for the Textile Decoration Media Studio: https://www.asp.lodz.pl/index.php/pl/component/content/article/308-wsp2/wsp2-tkanina-stylizacja/wsp2-inst-tkanina-stylizacja/wsp2-tkanina-stylizacja-pracownie/2064-pracownia-mediow-dekoracji-tkanin
Max. 8 participants
Costs: 40 Euro per person
.
Pattern Weaving Workshop with Associate professor Dominika Krogulska-Czekalska and Anna Grabowska & Robert Spychała
Pattern Weaving Workshop with Associate professor: Dominika Krogulska-Czekalska and Anna Grabowska, Robert Spychała - technical assistance
Pattern Weaving Workshop with Associate professor: Dominika Krogulska-Czekalska and Anna Grabowska, Robert Spychała - technical assistance
Based on woven pattern design using drafts and computer programme the workshop will give the participants the basic knowledge of weaving textile - creation and prototyping on TC2 loom.
After a short lecture and weaving presentation and then the introduction to the task all Participants will develop their own projects based on specific grid and according to described limitations and indications. (Handwork)
After consultations and optimisation in computer programme the card files for weaving will be prepared and samples will be woven by each one individually, so everyone will learn how to use the TC2 loom. (Computer Aided Design)
Participants will be able to experience the weaving of their own creations and will learn how to adjust their ideas to the possibilities that the loom gives on the basic level. (Weaving)
The samples created during workshop will be the basis for further creation and the material evidence of this creative process and experience. (Summery, final consultations)
Dominika Krogulska-Czekalska - Doctor of Arts, textile design lecturer at the Strzeminski Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, Decorative Textile Studio, where she explores the secrets and possibilities of jacquard structures involving her students in the inquiries and
searching for unconventional ways of application of this traditional technology. Thinking over and over the right to create new artifacts, results in paying more attention to commenting on surrounding reality and in critical attitude, both as artist and designer. Most willing to explore the field between disciplines, preferably critical but also restorative.
She is currently director of Textile Institute at Design Faculty. Participated in international exhibitions like International Triennial of Tapestry in Lódź (2016, 2019), „For freedom” exhibition (2019) Textile Art of Today (2018-2019), Departments open/ Departments Closed (co-curator and participant) The Polish School of Textile Art – Desa Unicum 2020, 2021 and 2022, 2021 BIEN Kranj in
Slovenia- solo exhibition - Soft Woven Voices. 2022- Cod_a -Solo Exhibition in Skierniewice, Poland
Must have 2020 award (coauthor) for blanket design, during Lodz Design Festival together with her graduate student and the Most Studio.
Curated and participated the Departments open/ Departments closed jubilee exhibition at the Central Museum of Textiles in Lodz.
Curated the 4th YTAT exhibition, moderated international symposium panel on education in textile art and design discipline.
Giving talks on textile curating and education strategies during Contextile Textile Talks conferences.
Max. 7 participants
Costs: 50 Euro per person
.
Paper Making Workshop with Prof. Magdalena Soboń and students
Paper Making Workshop with Prof. Magdalena Soboń and students, photos by the Strzemiński Academy of Art Łódź
Paper Making Workshop and Prof. Magdalena Soboń, photos by the Strzemiński Academy of Art Łódź
Based on an authorial programme the workshop will give participants the basic knowledge of hand papermaking. Participants will develop the following Skills: making paper pulp from recycled paper, cotton textiles and plant fibres. They will learn how to dye the pulp, press and dry the paper. To create sheets of paper they will use a combination of Western and Eastern style of papermaking. The practical skills will be the starting point to create participant´s own artistic concepts. The attendees will also lean how to adjust and use these methods in the conditions of their own studios.
Prof. Magdalena Sobon is visual artist specialized in paper art, professor at the Strzedminski Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz. She is an author of several solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions in Poland and abroad. She is a winner of some prestigious awards as The Prize of the organization’s Board Members of the “Biennale International du Lin de Portneuf” (BILP) in Canada in 2022, The Prize granted by the Marshal of the Pomorskie Voivodeship at 11th Baltic Mini Textile in Gdynia, Poland in 2019 Honourable mention at the 1st Biennale of Textile Art in Poznan, Poland in 2017, Honourable mention at Contextile 2016 – Contemporary Textile Art Biennial in Portugal 2016, Grand Prix at 14th International Triennial of Tapestry in Lodz, Poland in 2013, Excellent mention at 7th International Fibre Art Biennale “From Lausanne to Beijing” in China in 2012, Honourable mention at 6th International Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art in Mexico in 2011, Bronze Medal at 6th International Fibre Art Biennale – From Lausanne to Beijing in China 2010
More information: https://www.asp.lodz.pl/index.php/pl/litera-s/2593-magdalena-sobon
Place: Strzemiński Academy of Art Łódź (venue 2)
Link for the Textile Decoration Media Studio: https://www.asp.lodz.pl/index.php/pl/component/content/article/308-wsp2/wsp2-tkanina-stylizacja/wsp2-inst-tkanina-stylizacja/wsp2-tkanina-stylizacja-pracownie/2064-pracownia-mediow-dekoracji-tkanin
Max. 7 participants
Costs: 40 Euro per person
.
Screen printing with reactive dyes workshop with Paulina Sołtyszewska
Screen printing with reactive dyes Workshop with Paulina Sołtyszewska, photos by Paulina Sołtyszewska
Screen printing with reactive dyes Workshop with Paulina Sołtyszewska, photos by Paulina Sołtyszewska
The program of workshop explores and examines concepts of composition and colours through screen printing techniques combined with reactive dyes. Reactive dyes work on all cellulose fibres – they offer a wide range of bright colours. Additionally, they are frequently used in the contemporary practice of dyeing cotton yarn and fabric. The participants will have an opportunity to work with readymade screens but also to use the dye like watercolours and hand paint images onto blank silk screens. At the end of the session, the participants will get samples of their works and the recipe for recreating the process of making dyes at home.
These workshops will allow participants to redefine materials that they encounter daily. The hidden potential of objects will be uncovered by chemical processes that will further enable creative flow.
Paulina Sołtyszewska is a designer and artist specializing in textile art. She participated in the Summer Study Abroad; a Textile Design course at Central Saint Martins. Her background combines the experience of the fashion industry and academia. Currently a lecturer at the Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz.
She is a scholarship holder of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2021), a laureate of the Grand Prix of the Wladyslaw Strzeminski Project (2021) and Grand Prix Textile Art Biennial of Poznan (2021).
Max. 7 participants
Costs: 40 Euro per person
.
War net Workshop with Izabela Stronias and Michal Szulc
Workshop participants will join our action of weaving camouflage nets for Ukraine. The action is in response to a request from the befriended Lviv National Academy of Art.
We will weave camouflage nets together in the spaces of the LOOK Gallery, where we have so far presented fashion-related exhibitions, and send them to our friends in Ukraine.
You will learn about weaves, weaving techniques, and will have the opportunity to participate in a unique action to support our neighbors, friends, artists.
Izabela Stronias graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz and Cracow. Her field of artistic activity is stage design and theatrical and film costumes, as well as painting. She designs scenery and costumes for television theater, drama theaters, operas, ballets and films. She has worked with Polish, French, Chinese and German directors. Izabela Stronias has received three Golden Masks for her theatrical work - for costumes for the play "Intrigue and Love" (Jaracz Theater in Lodz), for stage design and costumes for the play "Kobro" (New Theater in Lodz), for stage design and costumes for the opera "Semele" (Grand Theater in Lodz). She was awarded the Polish Film Academy's "Eagle 2019" for her costumes for the „Kamerdyner" film. In addition to her film and theater activities, she is involved in painting. Her works were recently shown at the Sisley Foundation Gallery in Paris. She runs the Theater and Film Costume Studio at the Fashion Design Institute at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz.
Michał Szulc. Born in 1983, designer and lecturer. Head of the Fashion Design Institute at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz. For more than 17 years he has been involved in the fashion industry as the head designer of underwear brands and men's collections. He has presented his collections at shows in Poland and abroad. Szulc's designs are published by magazines: VOGUE, ELLE, Zwierciadło, KMAG, Gala, Viva! and others. He was twice a scholarship holder of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Max. 30 participants
Costs: 15 Euro