A real ‘textile’ event involving an intricate network of connections…. finally all the threads have come together and the exhibition is underway!
Dorothy Wedderburn ‘on and on and on’
Together with Ludmila Egorova, one of the organisers of the annual “Scythia” textile biennials in Kherson, Ukraine, and with the help of other members of Galerie Zône, Leiden NL, I helped to curate and organise this exchange ‘mini art-textiles’ exhibition.
10 Ukrainian artists and 10 Dutch artists, all working in the medium of textiles, were invited to participate, each with 2 pieces of work which should not be larger than 30cm x 30cm x 30cm.
From 15 – 26 June this exhibition was on show in Kherson, Ukraine, concurrently with the 11th International Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art.
The exhibition is now in the Netherlands where it is can be seen at Galerie Zône, Leiden, until Sunday 25th September.
The private view in galerie Zone was on Friday 25th August, and Hanny Spierenburg kindly gave the opening speech. Our very special guests were Olexander Horin, Ambassador of Ukraine to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, together with his wife, and Mrs. Klimkina the First Secretary at the Ukrainian Embassy.
It was very relevant that Hanny should open our exhibition here as she was the instigator, and main organisor, of the Textile Festival which took place in Leiden in 2015. Within this same festival the ETN (European Textile Network) also scheduled its bi-annual meeting and lecture series to take place, and so it was that Andrew Schneider (Ludmila’s husband) and their daughter Anastasia came to talk about the “Scythia” textile exhibitions which they have been organising since 1995.
I was able to introduce Andrew and Anastasia to Galerie Zone, and tell them something about our previous international collaborations…. and this in turn led to the idea for our joint exchange exhibition.
The participating artists from the Ukraine are: Galyna Dugovska, Ludmila Egorova, Victor Gavryliyk, Natalia Kuka, Olexander Levadniy, Olga Marino, Veronika Mon, Natalia Pikush, Andrew Schneider and Ester Serpionova
and from The Netherlands: Frans Beelen, Jette Clover, Marijke Eken, Anouk van Klaveren, Aart Korsuize, José van Loon, Monika Loster, Nathalie Muller, Nicoline Schuijt, and Dorothy Wedderburn.
Here is a link to a nice article about the exhibition (in Dutch) with photo’s of work by some of the other participants. http://www.handwerkwereld.com/…/nederlands-oekraiense-tent…/