2012

ARTAPESTRY3 in Silkeborg Bad 

VERNISSAGE 

Margrethe Agger, Director Iben From and Inge Bjørn.

Inge Bjørn’s welcome speech at the opening of ARTAPESTRY3,

the exhibition of contemporary European tapestries at Silkeborg Bad Thursday may 17^th 2012.

Thank you to the steering committee for your idea and your work and for continuing to create respect around the art of weaving and the trust that visual art is a necessary cultural life enhancer in our lives.

Thank you to the exhibitors.

The other day I had a look at the collection of tapestries. You all have one thing in common: you have chosen to work with yarns in many qualities - linen, wool, silk and cotton in many, many colours in order to express in the weaving what is in your minds that you wish to share with us all.

Here are impressions from travels, landscapes, townscapes, family memories, votive images, patterns, ornaments, myths, suggestions of sorrow, death, anger – all created and worked with talent so the finished piece can be hung on a wall or in a room.

An image woven with yarn has a different effect from the same one painted in oils on canvas.

The light is reflected differently – the woven piece lends a feeling of warmth and cold in a particularly striking way. I think the fact that we all cover our bodies with clothing from birth to grave makes a difference, we recognise cloth.   Traditional knowledge is the basis for renewal.

It makes me very happy to experience the visual power contained in your weavings.

The catalogue: it is noticeable that many of the artists were born in one country and now live in another – it can be felt in these pieces of work that you have all travelled much and seen a lot - experienced art and different cultures.

The artists: as varied as the images are and as well as the noticeable joy in the act of weaving, there is also a cohesion which might well be influenced by the fast changing conditions of existence. The weaving process itself is so time consuming that the world may well look completely different by the time the piece is finished.

Hope is integral to weaving. One wants to make things better.

An Indian myth: the warp is like eternity – the weft is what we each weave into it: as in life what is done cannot be undone – so one does not unpick – but if the warp is long enough – one can use colours or stitching to turn the mistake into a harmonious part of the whole.

65 years ago (during or just after the German occupation of Denmark, when there were no new clothes or cloth to be bought in the shops) I bicycled around the country surrounding Silkeborg (to 16 different villages) where together with the housewives I tried to find ways of piecing together rags to make clothes for the children. Where the cloth was worn out they used embroidery to cover up. The women’s imaginations, abilities and care sometimes turned the clothing into ART, it touched something in the heart and offered courage and lucidity.

In any case here we have a feeling of togetherness – thank you for that!

Times that change –

The Celts, a people with a high aesthetic sense – such excellent craftspeople, artists and merchants – the Greeks and Etruscans write about them: how they lived and loved stories. They have not themselves left a written language, but they gave their name to a more than 1000 year long period during the transition period between the bronze and iron ages. For instance the silver vessel found in Gundestrup.

Rituals:

The French sculptor Bourdelle left little notes for his wife and in one of these he said:

“your tools must be in order, you must sleep and rest enough to make sure your thoughts don’t become a hindrance to your hands when you see an image in a stone and have to cut it free.

If there is a conflict between your thoughts and your hand (your sight, your feeling and ability) you might spoil the spirit of the stone and the image will only become your own ego.”

That is never enough – so courage for the future and good luck.

- I hereby declare the exhibition open

Inge Bjørn

Randi Studsgarth and Peter Horn

Lise Frølund, Renata Rozsivalova and Jane Freear-Wyld

Ulrikka Mokdal

Anne Jackson and Kristine Sæterdal

Sarah Perret and Aino Kajaniemi

Margrethe Agger, Kirsten Glasbrook, Katherine Lavocat and Brita Been

Unn Sønju and Grethe Sørensen

Inka Kivalo and Carmen Groza

REPORT

KunstCentret Silkeborg Bad is a former health spa, located in the beautiful lakelands near Silkeborg, Denmark. On 17th May, many of the ARTAPESTRY3 exhibitors, and a large invited audience, attended the Private View of the exhibition. In the historic building, the exhibition space retained some of its original features, so that the gallery had more character than the traditional "white cube". The tapestries were hung quite close together, allowing a different form of cross-referencing and dialogue between works.The show as a whole gave a sense of the dynamism that can be generated within the restrictions and traditions of the medium of woven tapestry. The overall effect is one of richness, diversity and thoughtful commitment on the part of the artists in this ancient medium.