The Event of a Thread: Global Narratives in Textiles

“The Event of a Thread” brought together 25 international contemporary artists, who use textile to create aesthetic and cultural narratives through objects, installations and video works.

Organized in collaboration with the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), one of the oldest art institutions in Germany, the exhibition was curated by Susanne Weiss and Inka Gressel on the invitation of ifa and aimed to build on the original selection by creating new connections in each institution the exhibition travels to, with the assistance of curators at each institution and the addition of new works from local artists. “The Event of a Thread” featured a variety of stories ranging from the tradition of quipu used by ancient Andean cultures in South America to the textile techniques from the indigenous people of Wichí in Argentine and from Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu’s revival and adoption of the long-forgotten tradition of yazma (originally used for hand-painted kerchief) to Burhan Doğançay’s tapestries created at the Aubusson workshops. The exhibition focused on the historical, social and cultural meanings of fabrics, investigated the various uses of textile as a tool of expression and presented different artistic positions that interact with one another within the exhibition space.

One of the two special areas in the exhibition had been dedicated to Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu (1911-1975), the first artist to develop a synthesis between painting and embroidery, textiles and yazma traditions in Turkey. A selection of Eyüboğlu’s yazma in addition to a selection of his never-before-seen fabric-printing block plates were presented in the “The Event of a Thread” exhibition. The other special area in the exhibition had been dedicated to Bauhaus.

Artists: Belkıs Balpınar, Ulla von Brandenburg, Hussein Chalayan, Burhan Doğançay, Noa Eshkol, Andreas Exner, Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Uli Fischer, Şakir Gökçebağ, Zille Homma Hamid, Heide Hinrichs, Olaf Holzapfel, Gözde İlkin, Christa Jeitner, Elisa van Joolen & Vincent Vulsma, Gülsün Karamustafa, Servet Koçyiğit, Eva Meyer & Eran Schaerf, Karen Michelsen Castañón, İrfan Önürmen, Judith Raum, Sabire Susuz, Franz Erhard Walther

and

Bauhaus Space

Harald Schmidt Archive

Ziya Tacir

Curators: Susanne Weiß, Inka Gressel (ifa, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen); Öykü Özsoy (Istanbul Modern)

Curatorial Team

Ümit Mesci, Deniz Pehlivaner