Des tableaux textiles à Yverdon

Ma galerie préférée à Yverdon présente une exposition de deux semaines au bénéfice de Terre des Hommes. Le vernissage a lieu aujourd'hui. Vous avez jusqu'au 17 octobre pour voir l'expo.

Anne Laurent, l'artiste qui expose ses tableaux textiles, travaille avec un large choix de tissus magnifiques. Elle les assemble dans des tableaux qui m'évoquent souvent les paysages de la renaissance italienne, ou les oeuvres folk russes. J'aime particulièrement sa manière de rehausser les couleurs de base de ses tableaux avec des touches de couleur complémentaire. Elle n'est pas préoccupée outre mesure par la technique, et n'hésite pas à manipuler ses tissus pour en rehausser la texture.
L'image ci-dessus n'est pas terrible, mais il y en a quelques autres sur le site de la galerie : www.galerie-yvart.ch.

Tous les bénéfices - de l'artiste et de la galeriste - iront à Terre des Hommes pour le projet Enfants de Roumaine.

7 novembre 2015 : un tricot-thé particulier (invitation)

Le Théâtre de la Tournelle et la Bibliothèque d'Orbe organisent chaque année une journée Portes Ouvertes dans le mystérieux bâtiment de la Tournelle, à Orbe, VD (Suisse).Cette année, le thème choisi est LE LIEN.
Il y aura une exposition "Du fil dans les idées" d'art textile, je vais y monter un coin lecture sur le thème de l'art textile, et je vous invite tous et toutes (et vos amis, et les amis de vos amis) à un tricot-thé particulier dans ce beau lieu.

Venez profiter des animations, découvrir l'exposition, et prenez vos ouvrages! Nous offrirons la soupe - ou une boisson chaude de votre choix - à quiconque viendra broder, tricoter, filer coudre ou même tisser un moment vers nous!

Venez seul(e) ou en groupe.
Dites-moi si vous venez (que je me réjouisse de ne pas être seule à tricoter!!!), ou surprenez-moi...

Les Portes Ouvertes ont lieu de 10h à 17h. Le foyer du théâtre dans lequel nous pourrons nous installer est une pièce magnifique, avec une immense cheminée (éteinte) et une belle vue sur la plaine. Il y aura à boire et à manger, à la bibliothèque un concours pour les grands et les petits, des lectures de kamishibaï pour les enfants à 10h et 11h, une vente de livres qui se finira au poids à 16h...

Illustration de Joëlle Flumet pour L'Émilie

Ce que le théâtre en dit : "Quel point commun peut-on trouver entre les travaux d’illustrations d’Isabelle Pralong, Aurélie William Levaux, Garance Tschumi et les pratiques d’art contemporain de Martine Birobent, Joëlle Flumet, Liliana Gassiot, Aglaia Haritz, Sandrine Pelletier, Sophie Schmidt, Stefanie Holler et les photographies d’Iris Hutegger? Des femmes, certes mais qui parfois utilisent le fil pour dire, exprimer, travailler l’image. Ce fil qui pendant des siècles a servi à coudre, broder ou passer le temps, le voici figuratif ou abstrait, gourmand d’idées pour une petite exposition proposée en toute amitié par le Centre d’art contemporain d’Yverdon-les-Bains."

site de la bibliothèque : http://biblio.orbe.ch
site du théâtre : http://www.tournelle.ch

It is textile art AND (not but) - a sequel on the Rethinking Needlework symposium

I don't know if the fact that the exhibition "Neue Masche" at the Museum Bellerive, Zürich did not really surprise me is good or bad. Maybe I share the same curiosity than the curators, and we browse the same sources (the web, the book "knitting art"...) and it is good to share our discoveries with more people?

But what bothered me (and therefore made me think) the most about the exhibition and the symposium "Rethinking Needlework" is that they where both largely based on the proposition "This is needlework/knitting/crochet BUT..." (it is huge, it is ironic, it is shocking, it is made of something surprising, it is controversial, and most important it is not traditional, it is NOT your granma's neeldework).

I must confess I am getting tired of this obligatory controversial or at the least ironic position the textile artist seems to have to take if her/his work is to be taken seriously and considered art. Imagine if each and every time you heard or read about a painter it said "This is painting BUT..." (this is not your granma's painting, this is tiny or huge, this is done with surprising material ,this is ironic this is controversial... etc). Of course some time the discourse on painting is also about the controversy, the new, the surprising. But it does not seem as obligatory and recurrent than it is in textile art.

Some would argue that this is because textile art is "somewhat new" in the Fine Arts department. Well I don't think so. When I look on photos from the exhibitions held at the Biennale de Lausanne or other textile art from about 30 years ago, the artwork and the critique does not seems so obsessed by justification, controversy and irony. And yet it was at a time where gender and social discussions where as burning as now, if not more.

Maybe it is time we start to look at the positive side of textile art. Let's say that the attention to needlwork and textile art has been justified enough. What if we let go of the BUT and try on the AND? Yes, this is needlework/knitting/crochet/patchwork AND it is stunning, thoughful, beautiful, moving, interesting, surprising, funny...

Rethinking needlework, a symposium

Last week-end I went to the symposium "Rethinking Needlework", held in Zürich on the occasion of the exposition "Neue Masche" at Museum Bellerive, Zürich.

Rethinking Needlework.
Discursive threads in current art and design production

Friday, May 20, 7 pm
Museum Bellerive, welcome address followed by a tour of the exhibition with the curators

Saturday, May 21, 10 am–6:30 pm
Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Vortragssaal
Admission: CHF 25/15
Lectures by Matilda Felix, Petter Hellsing, Jessica Hemmings, Verena Kuni, Patricia Waller; artist interventions by frfr-international (Marlen Groher; Corinna Mattner), Regula Michell/Meret Wandeler, Rüdiger Schlömer; sampling threads, performance by Ines Bauer, Steffen Schmidt and Désirée Zappa, MAS/CAS study course, Cultural Media Studies ZHdK

The exhibition was great, with lots of different propositions and nicely put together. It was nice to see some of the artwork I knew from photos on the web in real life. I was a little disapointed though, and I will explain why in my next post.

The symposium was very interesting to me, even if most of the contributions where in german which made it harder for me to understand. It gave me lots of food for thoughts and inspiration for further research.

The positive result of feeling a bit lonely in this german speaking context was that it gave me the courage to go and talk to some of the other isolated persons (or the one I guessed would be the most open to a discussion in english). Three where particularly awesome to me.

• I am very happy I met Jessica Hemmings, who patiently listened to my thoughts (see next post) and helped me with my chocolat cake. She showed us wonderful art that I did not know at all, was funny and clever and really interesting to listen and talk to. When I grow up, I want to be her and write amazing books and articles about textile art and artists.

• The-gnittinK-Room project artist, Rüdiger Schlömer, is not afraid to play with the knitting needles. He seems fun and curious about everything that may be a link, a thread or a motive. I want to play the "what if" game with him and see what happens. (And Rüdiger, if you read this, you really should try to see what happens if/when you finish even the smallest or simplest project, a hat for example.)

• Then artist Petter Hellsing moved me with his project "Little cabin in the wood". His tales - the ones he embroider (check his project "the living room") and the ones he tells - made me think a lot about the relationship between textile and intimacy. Textile is deeply rooted in the history of humanity. In fact, I believe that textile is one of the strongest root of humanity and culture. (I will save the these I have on this subject for another time.) Of that, I have been convinced since a long time now. But I don't think I thought that much about intimacy before. Really, of all the visual arts, textile arts only use the material that we allow to touch us intimately in a daily basis. That is a very inspiring idea for me.

I am very happy and thankful that such an event happened in my own country, not too far from where I live. I only wish I could be part of this textile world more often.