Val d’Argent 2019

flag-alsace-svgMi sbagliavo.
You know what news, direte voi.
But the novelty is, namely that I was never so happy to be wrong.
I think for a while 'you noticed in my post shadow of fatigue, it seems a veiled pessimism in regard to the patchwork, as if I had stopped to wait on the distant horizon of the sea should rise this thread of smoke, colorful means, and that they were dissolving the illusions to which I have always clung ever since I started to cut and sew the cloth fragments.
I confess that, in the past, some have done his worst to demoralize, this in spite of everything I have endured and all I could stand still, but ultimately I could not withstand the discomfort caused by the feeling that I was witnessing a sunset, the folding of the patchwork on himself, the repetition of themes seen, the joints in the direction of the pure effect, the unrealistic performances in which lacked both the art that the technique, e, sore, the smallness of a promising generational change.
The first cracks had formed a few years ago, When they were too frequent already seen, the impression of heated soup just to understand, and to receive praise and awards were the usual suspects names.
Ah, what a mistake my! I was blind, but now I see.
Who made the miracle?
One name: 25° European Patchwork.

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Looking back now, I owe everything to a fortunate set of circumstances.
I would also could not go to France, but it was decisive that my work has been admitted to the competition "L’opposition”. Max was my satisfaction, I can not deny, But the previous competition in which I participated, ie "La magie de la couleur”, It was particularly exciting in terms of originality and quality of the works.
Even with regard to the yardstick at the time I had much to say. Not that I had then expected to receive a prize, as well as I did not expect it in this edition, I am well aware of my limits, but at times I have had to observe that admirable works do not obtain due recognition according to criteria that escape me (or who prefer not to learn because they are already quite mischievous my).

To be honest, in the spring when I sent my membership, even I thought the competition. Il quilt I realized it was the transposition of makings of an idea that was spinning head for some years, and for which I had not yet found time and courage to give visible form. Insomma, In short, I found a title that would fit the theme of the competition and sent the photos in France, without much hope confess. And instead…
I was lucky even when, Upon receiving the good news, my travel agency went hunting for accommodation low-cost in Alsace and managed to find a small apartment in Sélestat, right in the center. For those not familiar already, I add that there all trains in the direction of Strasbourg and Mulhouse, from there does the bus to Val d'Argent, and further, that the town is not without a certain beauty.
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No less favorable was the weather situation, that which it has given four days of good weather, so much so that it seemed to be even in summer.
Above all, however, what has helped the high level of the works that I admired and dell'affacciarsi discovery of this colorful stage for young artists, some with exceptional creativity and admirable courage.
I add only that, I am having immediately decided that I would not have seen "all at all costs", I have given more time for the exposures that met my taste, and so I was limited to a rushed to the other. In fondo, come dicono gli americani, "Not all flavors are vanilla".
E allora, si parte!
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Being, as always, This trip low-cost, the choice of a night bus was almost obligatory and, arrived in Strasbourg, I took the opportunity for a sightseeing walk around the city, incocciando so in a haberdashery "impossible", that is one of those places where the reality of what is available beyond the imagination of those who are passing by chance in front of that window.
p1000070I've got left eyes there, and even a few tens of euros for the buttons decorated fairytale, but it was impossible to resist the temptation.
I must confess that that night, when a local train he unloaded in Sélestat, I was already preparing in the best frame of mind to appreciate what I saw on the following days in Val d'Argent, even though the physical was reasonable evidence, the excitement of the trip kept me up like a spring.
Before talking about (and show) del patchwork I would like to offer you some pictures that partly explain why this edition of the Carrefour Européen du Patchwork I loved it.
You will be part agree that those who exhibit, unless you have a laboratory or a similar business, generally does not pay too much attention to the commercial corollary. Something to buy, volendo, It is always, but after a while’ all that merchandise is exposed to boredom and do not see the time to go to enjoy the exhibitions. Instead in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines was much more, such as an avalanche of original fabrics for clothing, or exposure to costumes slovene (traditional clothes), e altro ancora.

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Now let's talk’ exhibitions. This year I decided to deviate a bit 'of my duties as a reporter, and you will excuse me if I will focus more on the work that I really liked. After all, after having seen and told of exhibitions, I give myself this sin of vanity forcing you to submit my personal taste.
In any case I also made a short film in which is included a quick overview of what there was in Val d'Argent (and not only…), and the other images you will always find in my album di Flickr.

 

I want to start with Galla, una quilter Russian but lives in France for fifteen years. In fact the term "quilter"It is an understatement as his artistic interests are also manifested in painting, in interior decoration, in photography, nel design clothing and in the show.
The ancient Russian roots have found fertile ground in France, and it has risen a particular enseble that is unmatched in it here and there across the Dnieper.
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Flaws – Encyclopedia nonexistent women – 175×61

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Flaws – Encyclopedia nonexistent women – Detail

The title is very significant: “Encyclopedia of Women nonexistent”. Galla fact does not intend to portray women in the flesh, but to provide a symbolic representation of how the female figure can enclose an otherwise elusive concept.
I am the Goddess, muse, la fatal Woman, the mother figure, female Luna, and more, not to mention the one from which we all depend: Mother Earth.
Although they are non-existent, in the sense that they do not have an identity response verifiable and shared, it is impossible to imagine their absence in our reality.
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Flaws – Woman of the new moon – 84×118

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Flaws – Amateur fruit juice – 80×120

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Flaws – Amateur fruit juice – Detail

Wise use of color and form to compose the images of great emotional force, but without sacrificing the elegance of the female tract. If I'm allowed to vouch for, full marks.

 

DAMSS, ie Daniela and Marco Arnoldi Sarzi-Sartori, two artists who have combined their imagination and their respective experiences in order to create works Fiber Art absolutely one of a kind.
In France they have exposed three major works of the "Future City" series. Milano, Roma, Venezia, as will be the year 3000? Each of these hypothetical city has been represented on a panel of ten meters for four, using, in the full spirit of patchwork, textile recycling materials.
I can assure you that the effect was remarkable, and in order not to offer a modest representation or infidel of those works I preferred to include in post the images obtained from the site DAMSS, to which I refer you to other interesting news.
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From the site DAMSS: Milano 3000 – 1050×400

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From the site DAMSS: Roma 3000 – 1050×400

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From the site DAMSS: Venezia 3000 – 1050×400

 

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Venezia 3000 – Detail

 

And yet it moves…
Sì, finally something is moving, Finally a breath of fresh air!
The young Estelle Lacaussague me, in fact, relieved of that weight a bit 'oppressed me, that feeling that I mentioned earlier this post, ie that for some years themselves witnessing the umpteenth remake of experiences already lived, where the highest aspiration was to trace the successes of quilter of the past, oppure, per contrasto, I happened to look with suspicion imaginative demonstrations of pure vanity.
Instead Estelle, colorless shouted, no abstruse compositions, no frills coy, but with the simplicity of the form, has created works of art that, secondo me, trace a border. Nothing of piacioso, anzi, it is clear that she does not go looking for applause, tutt’altro, Estelle poses questions to which the observer must adapt and, if you can, get a clue.
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Etelle Lacaussague – Joy – 140×140

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Etelle Lacaussague – Joy – Detail

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Estelle Lacaussague – Anger – 150×150

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Estelle Lacaussague – Anger – Detail

The poor quality of the photos can not reproduce all the details, the different texture of the supports, texturing, embroidery, and all gradations imprinted. You must therefore be content with what we managed to see and, ça va sans dire, trust me.

 

From the Czech Republic and in fury, here are two artists who are part of the group Art Quilt Harbour, association very active in promoting the patchwork in the Czech Republic.
Having followed in the course of a decade the artistic path of almost all the components of that group, It can only be pleased that since the first editions of the Prague Patchwork Meeting I was biased in predicting their successful. And now here we are in fact, cheap European Olympus law patchwork.
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Eva Brabcová – Roses for Klimt – 90×90

If you think Klimt is only "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer" or "The Kiss" you should make a trip to the MAK, the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, or at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, also in Vienna.
Eva Brabcová surely must have been struck by the "Impressionist" paintings by Klimt, and that in some works he warned the interest of the artist for the Van Gogh style.
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Helena Fikejzová – Broken Glass – 93×93

The works of Helena Fikejzová are always vaguely disquieting. Once they dominated the brightest colors, but now she prefers the softer tones, the gray, i beige, the earth, but not for that suffers the aesthetic impact.

 

It's time to come back to the main reason for my trip to France.
Certo, the exhibits are interesting, vero, Alsace is nice to visit, right, a trip, if done quietly, It is always a hoot, però, but eh, I went up for the competition "The opposition", also because my quilt It had been accepted.
Wow!
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Although well aware that I had no chance to be rewarded, the simple fact that my work had been judged worthy of being exhibited along with those of artists of the highest level was for me a great satisfaction, proof that, tutto sommato, I am not total un'incapace.
As always I happen to me, this time too few choices of the jury have left me puzzled, but certainly the first prize awarded to this work of Shin Chin-He was deserved. Look and marvel.
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Shin-He Chin – Gravity and Grace – 86×129

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Shin-He Chin – Gravity and Grace – Detail

Gravity and Grace is a collection of aphorisms of Simone Weil.
Inspired by those Shin Chin-He gave it a color representation in which two antithetical forces are opposed, and they are still forced to coexist, in nature and in the human soul.
The image brings to mind a window, on which endless raindrops beat making uncertain the vision, that is, the understanding of what is in addition to the glass.
Maybe Shin Chin-He does not know, but another artist has tried to shape this contrast between the severity, what lowers us, and grace, what elevates us. This is El Anatsui, Ghana native. He also realizes patchwork, also it comes to large installations composed from time to time at each exposure, and which, while maintaining the compositional elements are different each time (that a video).
with our patchwork textiles that we know he shares his philosophy, namely, the recovery and the recomposition. El Anatasui composes his tapestries using the various waste materials: tin lids, caps for liquor bottles or milk, printing plates, pieces of aluminum, all sewn with various copper wires. In those ensemble every material is recycled, such as the caps of this distillery in his hometown, Anyako.
Both Shin Chin-He that El Anatasui warn us inexplicability of the plot that unites and includes what is different, and to which we must abandon the belief that each of us is a part of a whole, and never an insignificant part.

 

Each inequality is bound to follow its evolution. can flattening, find a balance, or it can accentuate its disparities and create a separation between the two factors.
This is seen in the shape of some cities, in which, around a rich and well-served Center, arise more or less slums. They are called villages, suburbs, suburbia, suburb, hinterland, They have the same common trait: separateness.
Instead of modern polycentric cities and inclusive, the structures are adopted redditocentriche, with well-defined boundaries to cross which is not controlled a passport, but the current account.
It is inevitable then that envy, fear, grudge, selfishness and bitterness form the perfect fuel mixture that ignites tempers and makes it impossible for a civil cohabitation.
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An Eunjoo – Uptown and Dowtown – 80×120

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An Eunjoo – Uptown and Dowtown – Detail

An Eunjoo splendidly caught this form of segregation (in)civil, with town houses high in full sun, rich in colors and spaces, while in the lower town of anonymous apartment blocks are held what little remains of light and soil, and she hopes that these conflicts ultimately find a non-violent outlet and that volgano towards a peaceful coexistence.
Unfortunately for her, and also for all of us, nothing that I feel and I see gives me cause for much hope in this regard, and indeed it is known that, Because the ruthlessness of some politicians in search of easy consensus, We are going towards a dangerous extremes of the voltages, towards intolerance preconceived, and from the formation of circles shrinking and apparently homogeneous.
It is good then the gianografia No. 314 from the book "365 fresh eggs".
TSUNAMI
Each of us is shipwrecked on a remote island in the ocean, among the dark depths of fear and treacherous currents of suspicion. If we are not willing to mitigate our prejudices will raise the tide and drown all.
Basta, I will not be saddened over, and then I give this old song by Billy Joel which is titled, coincidentally, “Uptown Girl”.

 

The wine is a favorite subject from Montserrat Forcadell, and how could it be since she comes from Cambrils, Catalan town known not only for its wonderful beaches also for its wines gradevolissimi?
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Montserrat Forcadell – The cup – 78×118

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Montserrat Forcadell – The cup – Detail

Già nel 2015 I had occasion to admire in Sitges one of his works entitled "La gota”, and once again she did not fail to impress with a performance a bit 'surreal, I would say almost dreamlike opposition (and union) of land and sea, Water and wine, of reality and reflection, well represented by a seagull and a glass renano.

 

Fire and water, two opposite, how I hate and love, yet forced to coexist.
In the theory of Empedocles, four are the roots origin of the universe, fuoco, acqua, aria, terra, including all equally in a hemisphere dominated by Love.
But because there is life a voltage is required, and is the hate that combining the four roots that generates contention that is the basis of life. When hate takes over and creates its own hemisphere, Love touches fight to turn the tables.
In the intermediate stage, when neither side is dominant, It takes place human life, in which coexist all its contradictions, just as water and fire.
And if you think this is not true at all reflect that the human body is made for 70% of water, and that every mouthful of oxygen is essential to feed the one hundred thousand billion microscopic fires that generate our body temperature.
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Verena Giavelli – Fire and Water Vibrance – 80×120

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Verena Giavelli – Fire and Water Vibrance – Detail

Fortune smiles on the brave, so they say. Verena Giavelli wanted to dare and was rewarded, He has tried to add to its "whirling" work an experimental treatment to the textile base, testurizzandoli, creating spectacular effects in relief and in color gradation, so as to make them appear as if they were processed to chisel.

 

Very impressive this shot proposed by Tatiana Varshavskaya, It gives a sense of depth and you are happy to contemplate the same landscape that is watching that woman.
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tatiana Varshavskaya – Distant Shores – 81×116

I suppose that beyond the end of realization and the effects of light, It has been awarded the composition of the chosen image. Nothing to complain, but maybe, la prossima volta, It would be nice to see another shot, as this is too much like a work of winning the competition 2017 (image the opquilt.com).

 

Here are below a work that, secondo me, He should have received more attention from the jury.
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In Sun Oh – The Sabbath – 80×120

Gyeongju, thousand years ago, It was the capital of the Kingdom of Silla, in the current South Korea.
Accessible by sun 3 hours by train from Seoul, It is a very popular tourist destination for its temples and the many historical artifacts, so to be called an "open air museum".
In addition to the benefits of political power and economic power, the city of Gyeongju has to Buddhism flourishing of the arts that embellished like no other cities of the peninsula, and even today the city's surroundings, Non urbanized mat like Seoul and Busan, I am of existential reflection for those who follow the routes originally designed for the search of enlightenment.
one Saturday, as he walked his way home in Gyeongju, In Sun Oh he received from the sunset viewing a comforting feeling of peace. We know all too well how the vicissitudes of life are opposed fiercely to our serenity, but sometimes she just looks up at a sky to be able to see the reflection of what we seek within us. In Sun Oh he tried to bring that moment of serenity on fabric, to be able to transmit it to us, As a contagion never beneficial.

 

This year also the nearby (almeno per me) Slovenia has successfully knocked at the door of the University of Patchwork in Europa.
Yes Ljubljana ecco l'opera di Mateja Chimney intitolata "fortepiano".
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Mateja Chimney – piano – 87×130

First came the piano fortepiano. In this case, the name itself is an opposition, Add to this, and also that, unlike the modern piano, the fortepiano notes do not mingle overlapping, enter, per così dire, in competition and in accordance. how many oppositions!
Mateja Dimnik is a "creative", therefore, it was intended to represent the contrast in detail and as a whole starting from a primary conflict, namely that between the light and the dark, opposite as day and night, joy and sadness, and noise and silence, and ultimately being and non-being.
For getting this sort of "fractal" monochrome artist has simplified the geometry by reducing it to the essentials, ie the quadrilateral where white contrasts with the black (of cloth, and the shadows created by the linear quilting), and in this dualism one justifies the presence of the.

 

"Vanity ... Vanity ... All is vanity." In the book "Babette's Feast" by Karen Blixen, this is what the general Loewenhielm adjusting her uniform and decorations in the mirror.
But I am neither a writer nor a general, so it has granted five minutes vanity, I do not think of asking too much ...
Here it is the work that I created for the competition, and of which I rightly proud.
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Rossana Ramani – Checkmate – 80×120

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Rossana Ramani – Checkmate – Detail

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Rossana Ramani – Checkmate – Detail

The game of chess would be incomprehensible without the opposition between white and black, però, and unlike the other games, in life it is not always permitted a draw.
It happens so that a contrast term has only after the defeat of one of the two contenders, a definitive checkmate. Yet sometimes nothing more fascinating to intense competition, it is between two political positions, between two sports champions, between two scientific theories, between two artistic styles, maybe even between two roosters which are competing for the chicken coop domain, and it may happen that we sometimes yearn to enter the arena.
Although the jury did not receive any prize, the one most precious to me are given by me, namely the satisfaction of seeing a fully managed imagined work to me since the first draft of the subject, and then I realized by means of solutions that I am due to invent offhand.
I have to thank the organization of the Carrefour Européen du Patchwork who beautifully placed my job, the first that noticeable entering, and anyway I got to record, incognito means, many favorable comments of those who were watching him.
And if that's not enough, I am also quoted in a website web, the "textile art magazineBerlin ", who spent a few words of approval in respect of my patchwork.
I'm not invisible!

 

Of the other works in competition, rewarded and not, you can find photos in my Flickr album. Here I have included those that have really impressed me for its originality and technical, and then if someone would disagree with my yardstick, pazienza, ormai me ne sono fatta una ragione.
As each edition, there were the "monumental" works.
Here is a review of a quilt traditional, a work of almost two and a half meters from the side created by Deb King.
Should you be tempted to engage yourself in these adventures, you might take a look qui.
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Deb King – Wandering Minstrels – 246×246

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Deb King – Wandering Minstrels – Detail

Speaking of old, not missing an exhibition of large quilt amish curated by Jaques Légeret, of which I have already discussed in a post dedicated to the edition 2015 intitolato “Ten Years After“.
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Amish

 

Since I like to jump to a tangent, Now here is some very modern works, and verti ways very, very significant.
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each Small – Four2 – 220×218

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each Small – Four2 – Detail

 

Patchwork + collage + watercolor = Peggy Brown.
The card was not sufficient basis to express his creativity, so Peggy Brown decisto to transfer his painting on cloth, not as a painting in which the color and shape predominate, but in patchwork, where those add up their effect to those created by the union of different fabrics and shapes
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Peggy Brown – Passageway I – 107×97

Maybe not comply with all the trappings of patchwork, but there is no denying that the end result has a certain charm.

 

Every writer has to deal with sex. What stories and how you handle it depends on the style, spirit, the purpose or the times taboo.
A quilter It can tell even with the fabric, Amy Meisser and therefore did not want to shirk this duty.
So she describes her work: “Fatigue Threshold” (Resistance against vibration) about sex. It is abuse. It is a moment. It is a life. It is a woman. It concerns all women. It's about the monotony of tasks and obligations and the domestic realm and the exhaustion and the birth and life and despair, and the slow death of something that once was precious.
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Amy Meissner – Fatigue Threshold – 135×196

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Amy Meissner – Fatigue Threshold – Detail

To better understand the meaning of this work requires a pedestrian explanation of what is meant by "fatigue limit".
Every mechanical component subjected to a repeated stress over time may be subject to what, according to the technical terminology is called "fatigue failure". This happens even if the load is not high, ie if it is perfectly bearable by the material used. But if that effort is repeated for a sufficient number of times, enough that the stress has a single weak point to be able to trigger the process of breaking. This can happen after days, months, anni, It depends on the applied load and the number of cycles of stress application.
Just to give you an example: the massacre of Viareggio 2009, in which a rail tank car full of LPG derailed and exploded killing 32 persone, axis was caused by structural failure resulting from a typical fatigue failure, although the procedural delays typically Italic they have not yet declared the official.
Ebbene, the woman is subjected to many repeated stress, stresses and burdens that apparently can be evaluated as "bearable", and for which the archaic and fundamentalist legislators even bring out the obligatory, but those loads are sooner or later able to break the feminine soul with a much attrition silent as irreversible.

 

Can not pass without informing the work underlying the emotional tension. The title is "Beyond the Concrete", namely “Over Concrete”, in the sense that you have to overcome and store as soon as the mad race for overbuilding and destruction of the planet.
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Kathy Nida – Beyond the Concrete – 145×150

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Kathy Nida – Beyond the Concrete – Detail

But the appropriate subtitle would be "pissed off".
You pissed nature, it is with us for our invasive technologies, for our pride, for our environmental genocide, for our violence end in itself, for our stolid blindness, for the lack of respect.
It pissed off but also the artist, for the same reasons I suppose, but also for the fact that Kathy Nida would take longer, more freedom, more serenity to devote himself to art, when instead, fate common to many quilter, the time and the forces are stolen from prosaic chores such as depressing.

 

And while we speak of nature, here is a series of small display panels "Hommage à la nature" of the group Grenzelos, constituted by the Swiss Doris Leuenberger, Sophie Maechler by French and German Monika Schiwy-Jessen.
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Doris Leuenberger – Nature in Miniature 1 – 31×15

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Doris Leuenberger – Nature in Miniature 2 – 31×15

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Doris Leuenberger – Nature in Miniature 3 – 31×15

If you think whether it works with innovative or experimental techniques, you are mistaken. While also using paper and various bonding systems, these artists rely on a decorative technique all the more ancient, ie use the pigments directly released into the wild.
One of the systems are expected to be laid on the support (paper or fabric) the plant elements that, through a vinegar bath, they will release the color, and after blocking everything you let the transfer process take place. Finished these stages, the support is heated to detach the plant elements and to fix the obtained drawings.
Today this technique is called "Ecoprint”, but it is easy to assume that in its long history has owned hundreds of names.

 

As we were on a roller coaster, Now we go back to the more flashy jobs, true color parties, …
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Sanae Muranaka – The Creatures’ Souls in the Sea – 175×175

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Sanae Muranaka – The Creatures’ Souls in the Sea – Detail

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Lin Hsin Chen – Organized Chaos – 61×91

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Lin Hsin Chen – Organized Chaos – Detail

… to subside between the colder nuances, much colder, a polar vortex.
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Betty Bubsy – Polar Vortex – 79×193

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Betty Bubsy – Polar Vortex – Detail

Generally Betty Bubsy prefers the slightly warmer shades, I'd say autumn, but it is likely chose to offer us a taste of the cold winters in the mountains in New Mexico, given that this year has brought to France also another quilt intitolato “The Ice Storm”.

 

The one surprise, here's the Woringer you do not expect. She leads us to the mountains, not that impressive and spectacular New Mexico, but between the green landscapes of the mountains of Arrée, in Finisterra, the westernmost tip of France.
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Anne Woringer – Promenade des korrigans – 155×140

Among those picturesque hills flourished Celtic legends and rumors of witchcraft, and precisely along the paths that cross the large natural park near the village of Botmeur, may appear, for the benefit of children, i korrigans, a kind of forest sprites, gnomes, little elves, troll, that tell the stories of the mysterious Bois Fers.

 

Già nel 2016 I had the opportunity to discover the patchwork Israeli, and more specifically the works of Orna Ron and Rachel Covo.
This year I discovered another artist from that country: maya Chaimovich. Anche lei, like his two colleagues, he soon abandoned patchwork Traditional and took the difficult road of textile art, and for his work he uses any material that comes to hand, Obviously recovery.
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maya Chaimovich – Mystery – 102×132

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maya Chaimovich – Mystery – Detail

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maya Chaimovich – Birth Certificate – 125×125

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maya Chaimovich – Birth Certificate – Detail

Questo patchwork It is a story, that of her husband's family of Maya Chaimovich.
his father in law, originario di Lodz, in Poland, He never wanted to say anything in his life. After his death, the family went looking for news, and he made it through the old birth certificates, going back a century.

Maya Chaimovich reproduced those certificates on silk, and those composed the patchwork of the family, shaping and bringing together all handmade weave, with scissors, ago e filo, nothing fuse glue or other easy loopholes.
Birth certificates are reproduced on the colored tiles, while on those in black and white there are, as well as various texts, the drawings of one of his grandchild, all'inscindibile a call connection between the generations in spite of space and time.

 

Misung Chang is a very good quilter Korean, and it is particularly proficient in suggesting a sense of depth of the frame.
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Misung Chang – Wall Story 2 – 140×80

Also in this case, as in his other beautiful creations, the eye tends to overcome the textile barrier to go and get lost somewhere.

 

One of the exhibits that I enjoyed the most was the one dedicated to the Quilter's Guild Russia, intitolata “Material Culture”.
Russia is great, It has always been great, mother and stepmother, closed and boundless, nurse and murderous, a geographical and anthropological paradox, so the material evidence of the many peoples who have traveled the length and breadth still form a vast cultural background, sometimes even hard to understand.
To give visible evidence of all those ancestral memories of the quilter Russia used the cloth, matter precisely, and so the circle is closed.
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Taisiya Zotova – Slavic Jewellery – The Resurrection of Alexander the Great – Diadem – 80×100

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Taisiya Zotova – Slavic Jewellery – The Resurrection of Alexander the Great – Diadem – Detail

Who has not heard of Alexander the Great? Its shape is legendary, is the basis of Hellenism, ie the culture that for centuries found spread among people who came from Greece to the banks of the Indus.
From the legend is a step to reach the mythology, in the sense that some Asian people will often prophesied resurrection, and he would have protected them from the invasions of other populations considered "barbaric". Among other things, there are those states that, staying in Alexandria St. Mark's tomb almost accando to that of Alexander, it was the corpse of the Macedonian king that translated to Venice, and as before he defeated the Persians, so his guardian spirit saved the Turks Serenissima.
Incidentally, Alexander the Great died at 33 anni. I do not know if this reminds you of something ...

 

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Elena Folomeva – Restoration – 88×100

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Elena Folomeva – Restoration – Detail

There are two ways of reading the work you see above. On the one hand we have the mythological figures demonstrate clearly, made with a very special technique, while on the other the drawing is partly ruined.
You might think that you are watching a stage of restoration, the restoration of the beauty of that ancient work.
However we could imagine that the time and modernity are doing fade the myth, flattening it to the role of aesthetic representation.

 

If you look in detail quilt below you will notice that in some areas there are words of quilted, course in Russian. When asked the meaning of those phrases the curator made-eyed, because in three days of exposure we were the first to ask that question. At this point I would think that people often look at the works without really seeing them.
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Galina Krasnikova – The Art of Mosaic – 65×145

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Galina Krasnikova – The Art of Mosaic – Detail

Premise.
St. Nicholas was and still is a very important figure in the Orthodox religion, prevailing in Russia, just think that “Nicola” the last two Tsars were called. This stems from the fact that the origin of this saint is not in Bari, but to Myra (today Demre), a town situated on the southern coast of Turkey, in a region that was then known Licia, and of which in the fourth century Saint Nicholas was bishop.
In what is said, after his death, the body did not suffer the indignity of decomposition, and thus he began the veneration of his relics. Being at the time that region under Byzantine domain, after the Great Schism that divided Catholics and Orthodox the veneration of St. Nicholas surpassed that to the saints of the Church of Rome.
A few decades later, Some sailors from Bari originally directed to Antioch landed at Myra, They broke the church's tomb, They stole the relics and carried in their city, justifying their actions with the fear that those falling into the hands of the Muslims who were rapidly advancing. Since then it became St. Nicholas of Myra St. Nicholas of Bari, patron saint of sailors.
Galina Krasnikova evidently visited both basilicas, to the eighth century Myra, currently undergoing restoration, and that of the twelfth century Bari, then he reported on the cloth mosaic reasons of both buildings and described his experience through quilting. Among other things he saw, It noted on the walls of symbols resembling the seeds of card game. And indeed it comes to Christian symbols: the heart is the one Savior, the pike is the spear which pierced him, and the flowers are the heads of the nails of the cross. Apparently she writes, in the thirteenth century a blasphemous joker decided to use them for playing cards, as if it were a retaliation for the Church condemning gambling.

 

Irina Voronina.
Those who follow this blog He knows how much I love the works of this Russian artist. It will be objected that in the world there are quilter most talented, more precise, more productive, but I appreciate her, In addition to technical, his artistic career, its evolution that has avoided the tedious repetition in the comfortable success.
If you do not believe you go on his place web and take a look at his work. Among the former and the latter there is such a distance that only its inexhaustible creativity was able to fill.
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Irina Voronina – Labyrinth II – 134×134

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Irina Voronina – Labyrinth II – Detail

Just above it spoke of basilicas, and this maze a bit like one of those found on the floor of the Gothic churches of the narthex (for the uninitiated this is the space between the main entrance and the course of the aisles). L’ottagono, ubiquitous in church, It represents transformation and rebirth in Christ, and the penitent had percorrerne the barefoot track (or kneeling), and in doing that act it was equivalent to a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
In fact it is not, oppure, if this had been the intention, Irina Voronina the design is not "in accordance", as they walked along the path is five corners, an androgynous number given by the sum of the number three male and female number two (religion is always complicated ...).
Guardacaso, right in the Église Sainte-Foy Sélestat we photographed this maze.
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Sainte Foy Church – Sélestat

More secular but no less famous is the maze of Knossos, island of Crete.
Legend has it that King Minos he shut up inside the Minotaur, half man and half bull monster that fed on human flesh. Only the greek hero Theseus, She aided by Ariadne, who gave him a wire to not get lost in the maze, He managed to kill the Minotaturo.
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Irina Voronina – Knossos-Inside the Labyrinth – 186×86

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Irina Voronina – Knossos-Inside the Labyrinth – Detail

I do not know where it takes us this labyrinth of colors, it looks like lunges and at the same time pull us inside.
The admiration I lost in those meanders, and even Ariadne's thread save me, since the center of labyrinth something impossible and terrible awaits me, it is the monstrous talent of Irina Voronina.

 

Ecco, I would have to show you dozens of other works, but really I risk repeating myself, and in good substance to bore (though most have not already done).
Come ho scritto sopra, in album Flickr (lastoffagiusta2019) find all the photos we took in Val d'Argent, and please forgive me if maybe in this post are not exhaustive as in previous occasions. I know there are now various blog e web-zine where to draw various accounts of Carrefour Européen du Patchwork, Therefore I offer my personal point of view, leaving you with the task of assessing the accuracy and truthfulness. I remind you once again that I can not and will not be impartial, There are other things that I like and I like less, and I got used to sit in the wrong, so bring patience.
Now, if you do not mind, I would like to offer you some pictures of Alsace, some niche that I was lucky enough to discover, always thanks to my travel agent ineffable. Why not live only patchwork.
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Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines

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Sélestat

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Sainte-Croix-aux-Mines

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Riquewihr

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Riquewihr

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Sainte Croix-Aux-Mines

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Strasbourg

 

Here is a short video of my adventure Alsatian (and if you have a fast enough connection, you can also see it in HD at 1080p).
My Flickr album are as follows:
lastoffagiusta2013 (for images up to 2018)
lastoffagiusta2019 (for pictures of 2019).

 

Ringraziamenti
  • My travel agent, ancora una volta, sperabilmente non l final.
  • Flixbus, impeccable service.
  • Jupiter Pluvio, for failing to show up for work.
  • Brewery “the Central” di Sélestat, for unsurpassed Edelweiss.
  • The European Patchwork, for the perfect organization.
  • Il “ink Café” Strasbourg, for the friendly environment and excellent coffee.
  • Mary Pudāne, for the translation from Russian.
  • The vineyards of Riquewihr, for the particular muscat.
  • Someone Visiting, for having spent the words of admiration for my quilt.
  • Thierry, for the comfortable apartment in a '700 building.
  • Il tempo, not to be passed too quickly.
  • Lady Luck, for standing always by our side.

5 thoughts on “Val d’Argent 2019

  1. The art of knowing how to do is not for everyone ,but appreciate masterpieces should be everyone ,impeccable in describing and very nice also travel from here to the other side of a glass of PCs that takes us into a retro world in some ways and in some futuristic ,always and again congratulations .
    Greetings Manola

    • Thanks Manola.
      In the key effects of all that do, andare, vedere, telling is the last shot of the movie: carpe diem.
      Happy New Year.
      :-)

  2. Pingback: Val d’Argent 2019 |

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