LOOMS AND LABOR: a three-day intensive program, dedicated to the topic of textiles and labor, Pickle Bar, 23 -25 November, 2023
Fashion and textile production involve many of the irregularities of our time. From resource exploitation, to challenging working conditions and gender imbalances, this industry attests to the extremes of our late capitalist era. The intensive program reflects on the possibility to propose alternatives to the top-to-bottom, or head-to-toe, model associated with labor in this domain. Through lectures, discussions, studio visits and meetings with local professionals, the participants in the three-day program will critically reflect on questions of labor in relation to the creation and circulation of fashion and textiles in the different craft traditions and contemporary practices.
The program caters to artists, scholars, cultural actors and students, who convene in-person to stitch, weave, and thread ideas, discourses, and expressions together as a small group. The organizers intend for participants to leave the program with robust relationships as well as an enthusiasm for continued engagement with the expansive topic under consideration in their respective field.
The program is free for chosen participants, who will be selected on the basis of an application. Participants shall be residents in Berlin for the duration of the program.
APPLICATION SUBMISSION IS CLOSED
The program is conducted in English over three consecutive days. Most of the lectures and discussions will take place at Pickle Bar in Berlin. A select number of studio visits will also be conducted in and around Berlin.
With contributions by Eldina Begic, Magdalena Buchczyk, Serkan Delice, Laurence Douny, Imogen-Blue Hinojosa, Olha Korniienko, Gulnur Mukazhanova.
Curators (Slavs and Tatars): Patricia Couvet, Anastasia Marukhina
The program is supported by Bezirkskulturfonds by the department of Art and Culture of the Bezirksamts Mitte von Berlin.
Exept the events marked as public, the program is for confirmed participants
23 November, 2023
11:00 Introduction by Anastasia Marukhina & Patricia Couvet (Pickle Bar) and Slavs and Tatars
12:00 Eldina Begic, Seminar “Workwear as a tool: Rethinking the future of dress and future of labor”
14:30 Olha Korniienko, Lecture “From Fabrics to Fashions: Production and Labor in Soviet Ukraine's Fashion Industry”
15:30 Screening Films from the Central State Audiovisual and Electronic Archives of Ukraine with commentary by Olha Korniienko
Eldina Begic is a fashion researcher and PhD candidate at University of the Arts London, where she speculates on clothing in a utopian future through an exploration of work and workwear.
Magdalena Buchczyk is a Junior Professor in Social Anthropology of Cultural Expressions at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. She conducts ethnographic research on textile collections, material culture and intangible heritage. One of her recent books is “Weaving Europe, Crafting the Museum”.
Serkan Delice’s research looks at cultural appropriation as a systemic issue in the industry in its relationship with capital accumulation, the general devaluation of living labour. He has recently published a co-edited book “Fashion’s Transnational Inequalities” (Routledge, 2023).
Laurence Douny is a Social Anthropologist who is specialized in the anthropology and history of materials and techniques with a focus on West African wild silks and indigo.
Imogen-Blue Hinojosa is a contemporary Mexican-American artist known for her performance, video, photography, and textile work.
Olha Korniienko is a historian specializing in fashion and material culture, with a focus on Ukraine and the USSR. Olha is the founder of the Digital Archive of Ukrainian Fashion History and is affiliated with the Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam.
Gulnur Mukazhanova is a visual artist whose work draw inspiration from Kazakh textile traditions, prominently utilizing felt as her primary medium.
