Diffused Herbarium, Felt & Embroidery: Collective Patchwork
Education and Mediation is a programme accompanying Manifesta, the nomadic European biennial, creating spaces for encounters with contemporary art through workshops, participatory activities, conversations and shared experiences. As part of Manifesta 16 Ruhr, I developed and led a participatory project in collaboration with the local community of Essen and Museum Folkwang.
Referring to the strong presence of Polish and Ukrainian art within Manifesta 16 Ruhr, the project explored the interweaving of Polish and Ukrainian cultural contexts through textile practices, patterns and collective making.
The three-day workshop began with felting, approached as a gesture connected to memory and the physical labour traditionally associated with women’s work. The second day focused on patterns and the migration and transformation of their meanings across cultural contexts. During the third day, participants initiated performative actions using a large-scale patchwork developed throughout the workshop.
Designed as an aerial view of agricultural fields, the patchwork was gradually transformed through collective embroidery. Participants created and embroidered their own signs onto the textile, contributing to a shared image whose final form emerged through the process of collaboration. Through the repetitive act of embroidery, the patchwork will gradually become covered with the participants’ individual stitches and signs.
The next session will take place during the exhibition Shared Homes at the National Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw, where participants will continue the embroidery process and further transform the textile.
Photo: Silviu Guiman
