Event Details
The 'Woven Hug' team pictured at the launch of the 'Woven Hug' participatory textile installation at Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart, 6th July 2023. (Photo: Woven Hug project) |
| Participatory textile installation: | Woven Hug (Abrazo Entramado) |
| Description: | Woven Hug (Abrazo Entramado), is a participatory textile installation that seeks to embrace the city with a pair of textile arms filled with scrap material and covered in designs and fabrics embroidered by the city’s inhabitants. It invites us to reconnect after years affected by the pandemic and economic crisis. Phase 1 was presented in March 2022 at LABNL, Lab Cultural Ciudadano (Cultural Lab), CONARTE (Arts Council Nuevo León State), Monterrey, Mexico. Over 2000 pieces of cloth, recycled by the community of Monterrey, were embroidered by a group of over 170 participants into a 20 metre long Woven Hug.
The installation is inspired by Chilean arpilleras (patchwork pictures of fabric scraps, hand stitched onto burlap) from the Conflict Textiles collection. This inspiration has been forged through previous collaborations with Conflict Textiles: Latin American Myth Deconstruction (London, 2018); Neo Norte (Santiago, Chile, 2018); and the recent Abrazo Entramado (Woven Hug) (March 2022).
The participatory textile installation will be recreated at Woven Hug - Community Textiles Project - Flowerfield Arts Centre - Portstewart, Monday 19 June - Wednesday 5 July 2023.
Associated activities include:
- 25th January 2023, Queen’s University Belfast: lecture and workshop about Woven Hug,
- Recycling campaign to collect fabrics. Drop off 15 May – 19 June at Flowerfield Arts Centre. Collection points: R-Space Gallery - Linen Biennale, Ulster University (Fine Arts Department), Queens University (Modern Languages Department)
- Woven Hug community embroidery workshops: Monday – Friday, 19 June–5 July, 1.30 –4.30pm.
-Conflict Textiles workshop, 27 June 1.30 - 4.30
- Family workshops: - Saturday 24 June & 1 July, 10.30am – 12.30pm; 1.30 – 3.30pm. Open to All.
- Panel Discussion, Thursday 29 June, 7pm: How can participatory textile art foster sustainable practices? (1.12hr video recording of panel discussion).
- Open air music by Chilean musician Victor Henriquez, 12.30 to 13.30, Saturday 24 June, (family workshops before & after)
- Launch event, 7pm, Thursday, 6 July & Exhibition: 6 July - 31 August 2023 (weather permitting).
For an overview of the project process and outcome see:
Documentary: Woven Hug 2.0 (English Subtitles) (11min)
Documental: Abrazo Entramado 2.0 (Subtítulos ESP) (11min)
Weblinks:
-Buffet Intstitute for Global Affairs, Northwestern University
-This short film LABNL Sesiones de prototipado | Abrazo entramado: Escultura textil colaborativa (16:11), produced by LABNL (CONARTE), documents the process of making "Abrazo Entramado (Woven Hug)". |
| Commissioned by: | Flowerfield Arts Centre / Buffet Intstitute for Global Affairs / Arts Council England |
| Date(s): | 15th June 2023 - 26th August 2023 |
| Venue: | Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart, Northern Ireland
185 Coleraine Road, Portstewart, Derry / Londonderry, Northern Ireland BT55 7HU |
| Curator: | Tere Chad & Cordelia Rizzo |
| Facilitator: | Roberta Bacic and Shauna McNeilly |
| Outcome: | Woven Hug collected 2cbm of recycled fabrics, which allowed to facilitate 3 weeks of embroidery workshops to stitch a 20m long ‘arpillera’ hug with over 200 participants. It provides a meeting space for the community, addressing themes like Northern Ireland society post-Good Friday Agreement, the region’s textile heritage in connection to the Linen Biennale, women’s historical role in society and how climate change is impacting over the coastal landscapes. It is showcased as a memorial that invites us to reflect on how important it is for us as social beings to hug and be hugged. |
| Documents: |
• Reflection on QUB workshop, 25 Jan 2023 - view
• Flowerfield Arts Centre Guide, Apr-Jun 23 - view
• Press release 1, 'Woven Hug', June 2023 - view
• 'Woven Hug' Recycling campaign, May/June 23 - view
• 'Woven Hug' Community group workshops - view
• 'Woven Hug' Family workshops, 24 June/1 July - view
• Flowerfield Arts Centre Guide, July - Aug 23 - view
• Press release 2, 'Woven Hug', June 2023 - view
• 'Woven Hug' Overall Project flier - view
• Conflict Textiles workshop, 27 June - view
• 'Woven Hug' introduction panel, July 23 - view
• Conflict Textiles workshop outcome, 27 June - view
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