Creators & Keepers: Women Weaving Europe

In CULTURALITY we understand crafts as an indispensable identity element capable of characterising and highlighting a territory through its traditional culture and its links to the community that inhabits it. Crafts are inevitably linked to the territory because it conditions them from the inside out, for instance, through its specific needs and the raw materials that are available in the area: it determines their types, their shapes, their decorative motifs and, of course, their use. In turn, crafts can also influence the territory, creating unique cultural landscapes and distinctive social customs that form the basis of the local shared heritage. Thus, crafts are connected to the community because it shares relations with the oral traditions, verbally transmitted know-how(s) or peculiar ways of cooperation and interaction between its habitants.

Through this exhibition, the first joint effort of the members of our international and interdisciplinary consortium takes shape, and it seeks to offer the public an introduction to the ideals that gave rise to this ambitious project. We present to you a true declaration of intent that covers, despite its limited length, several of the fundamental pillars on which our efforts will be based over the coming years. The team of representatives from each of the countries that make up our partnership carefully and sensibly chose the objects that they considered would most effectively transmit the values that we wish to disseminate through our first activity as a group. In the detailed explanations that will accompany the pieces in the catalogue the viewer will be able to feel and understand the pride with which all the contributors speak about their very own artisanal traditions.

CULTURALITY understands crafts, of course, our aim is to offer a leading role to the crafts as they deserve want to share the singularities and values of our own artisan traditions. Our greatest aspiration is that, through our work, traditional crafts are no longer considered a thing of the past, but rather a source of pride and sustainable development for both the present and the future.

Firstly, of course, our aim is to offer crafts the leading role they deserve as containers of local traditions and ancient knowledge, regardless of their place of origin. Each of the participating countries has a rich legacy of artisans specialising in the production of pieces with particular characteristics, which makes them as interesting as they are representative of their homeland. However, when selecting a theme for a modest inaugural exhibition such as this one, we could not just work with a research field as broad and ambiguous as “crafts” in general. That is where the idea of narrowing it down first came from. We immediately realised that this would be a great opportunity to highlight the fundamental role that women have played as creators, artisans, and protectors of our textile heritage and all its associated knowledge. This is another of our commitments, both short and long term, and one of the ultimate goals of the project. It cannot be a coincidence that in all the geographical locations that take part in this joint exhibition, this type of woven heritage is so strongly linked to the popular wisdom of women; women who knew how to take this rather homely duty that was, most certainly, just matter-of-factly assigned to them and create wonderful things with it.

Together we can find intertwined in the threads of this textile legacy not only a catalyst for the creativity of our ancestors, but also a testimony of their empowerment. Women from all places have been weaving a great collaborative patchwork piece for centuries, in which each culture has added its contribution, and it is the responsibility of our present-day creators to continue preserving and furthering this precious legacy. The underlying line of the chosen theme is based on this very concept: today’s modern designers have quite often, managed to take over from their artisan ancestors and reinterpret their know-how in ways that ignite a new appreciation for their tireless efforts. Therefore, some of the participating countries have chosen not only to show us a piece that directly represents their textile artisan heritage, but to also bring out a second item that reflects their influence on their high-quality, artisan-based contemporary design. This continuity, although scarce, should always be taken as a breath of fresh air in a sociocultural context like the one we live in right now, in which globalisation and mass production are gradually and effectively killing the interest in learning and preserving this ancestral knowledge. The peculiarities of characteristic traditional textiles linked to the folklore of a certain geographical area have also been known to act as a promoter of the sense of belonging and community among the inhabitants, carried time and time again as a banner of their pride. Where it seems that individuality is constantly being diluted in pursuit of an increasingly ubiquitous homogenization, the nods to tradition in these contemporary garments never fail to make a powerful statement.

Both a well-preserved and respected past and a conscious present are indispensable parts of a future in which this knowledge is still valued and transmitted from generation to generation, as it has always been. That is what we hope to convey through this exhibition and, ultimately, one of our most ambitious goals.