Museum Arnhem to present exhibition on 'Threads'

For example, Kimsooja (1957 Taegu, Korea) reveals in her powerful and poetic video-installation Thread Routes (2010) processes like spinning, weaving and knitting in the production of thread and textiles. The video is part of a major ‘visual anthropology’ project dealing with the production of thread and textiles in different cultures throughout the world. Kimsooja’s project is an homage to the centuries-old crafts and techniques that are at risk of disappearing through globalisation and mass production.

Remco Torenbosch (1982 Assen) in his installation Europees Blauw (European Blue) (2013) takes the textile as the starting point that is used as an ‘identifying textile’ within the European Union for flags, coverings for conference tables and upholstery for chairs. European blue expresses the unity among member states, but the uniform blue colour shows significant shade differences: each member state uses its own interpretation of the colour blue.

Tiffany Chung (1969, Danang, Vietnam) focuses in her map-projects on places with a traumatic history, which she translates into city plans and national maps on which railroad routes, highways and other connections are rendered through embroidery and stitching. In her installation Scratching the walls of memory (2010) she reproduced handwritten messages such as ‘I couldn't find my shadow’, which were discovered during therenovation of a primary school in Hiroshima. Behind the blackboards appeared messages from the victims of the atomic bombing who took shelter there in 1945 and through these messages tried to locate family members.

The exhibition is multidisciplinary and includes installations, video works, wall hangings and standing objects, some of which are interactive. Thus visitors will be able to make a stitch on the embroidery hoop Crossover Collective (2013) by Floor Nijdeken(1981, Apeldoorn) and get to know Internet ‘cross-links’ in contemporary culture in Thomas Boland’s (1987, Apeldoorn) project which links 40 ‘hotspots’ in Arnhem with each other and with Museum Arnhem: wireless.

The presentation of Threads will be accompanied by performances, lectures, workshops and other activities organized in cooperation with Arnhem Mode Incubator, Erfgoedcentrum Rozet, Kunstbedrijf Arnhem and Stichting Quadraam, among others.

Museum Arnhem