Collective Thread

The title might suggest the exhibition tries to express something that connects us as people. We focus on various current but also timeless themes related to people, interpersonal relationships, how an individual processes their feelings, along with their various interpretations. At the same time, we search, find and emphasise perhaps involuntary artistic expressions of ordinary people in the form of an unconscious byproduct of different human activities. For the main material, we have selected textile and its elements. Why?

As a parallel to human life, a thread might be short, long, colourful, colourless, tangled, extended, forgotten. Even though it is fragile on its own, once connected to others, they form a strong material. When meaninglessly untangled, it creates a clump it is hard to get out of. In order to fulfil its goal, it needs to be anchored and navigated around the tapestry of life by an artist with a desire to create something. 

Fabric, which has always been an ordinary part of our lives, brings up various paradoxes. Sometimes worshiped too much, sometimes despised. Something that can connect people in the form of fashion trends, but also divide them from those who do not follow them. Something that protects us, covers us and yet reveals too much on other occasions. Its production is often linked to hard work and misery, while promoting prodigality and happiness elsewhere…

The exhibited works often incorporate recycled or scrap textile material, highlighting the almost endless possibilities when it comes to using recycled or up-cycled textile for artistic purposes. Some of them are interactive in order to evoke the feeling that this issue concerns the viewer as well.