Nesa Geschwend, Objekt 1, 2019. Foto: Nesa Gschwend.
Exhibition in the foyer of the Frauenmuseum Hittisau, Austria, until September 8, 2019
The Swiss artist Nesa Gschwend works with LIVING FABRICS on a long-term art project that deals with used textiles. Gschwend creates a network across personal, social, national and cultural boundaries. Around 250 people from all ages and from twenty nations came together in Switzerland, Austria and Georgia in order to create a participatory artwork. While working together, not only fabrics but also manual skills and stories were shared.
In June 2018 also in the Frauenmuseum Hittisau numerous people collaborated, embroidered, cut, and sewed textiles.
The fabric pieces from Austria, Georgia and Switzerland have been further processed into artifacts by Nesa Gschwend in her studio; she put them into relation and added them together into one piece. This process has transformed the individual textile pieces into an artwork. The resulting carpets and the documentary film of the project will now be presented in the Frauenmuseum Hittisau. As a nomadic object, as a warming shelter, as a spatial arrangement, as a symbol, and place for rituals and traditions, the carpets stand for a connecting element between spaces and people.
Paricipative sewing at the Frauenmuseum Hittisau
2019. Foto: Nesa Gschwend.