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Rawhia Aly, L’arbre et le chat, 1961. Collectie Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Rawhia Aly, L’arbre et le chat, 1961. Collectie Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

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EXHIBITION

LET TEXTILES TALK

Exhibition — 13 nov 2021 t/m 20 mrt 2022

About the exhibition

From 13 November, the Let Textiles Talk exhibition shows six colorful tapestries that encourage people to think. Together with the new curator of design, Amanda Pinatih, you will unravel the appeal of these barely seen carpets.

In 1951, the Egyptian architect and educator Ramses Wissa Wassef, together with his wife Sophie Habib Georgi, embarked on an experiment on creativity that was praised by prominent figures from the art world, such as former director of the Stedelijk Willem Sandberg, artist Etel Adnan and philosopher Jean Paul Sartre. With the experiment, Wassef wanted to prove that creativity is innate, and anyone can make art. He did this by teaching children to weave carpets ‘uninhibited’ and isolated from ‘modern civilization’. In doing so, he opposed the monotonous mass production and lack of creativity in 20th century urban culture.

In Let Textiles Talk, the Stedelijk combines the carpets with works by Etel Adnan, Karel Appel, Dorothy Akpene Amenuke, Sheila Hicks, Jean Lurçat and others. These works take a transnational journey through history, raising questions about how the carpets and their makers have been contextualized over the years and from what perspective we can view the experiment today.

A group of Egyptian children, (textile) artists from all over the world and a former museum director tell their personal stories at the six tapestries. These stories have been strung together by Amanda Pinatih into a mosaic story about textile art, creative expression, and revaluation of the collection.

The six carpets seem to be an odd one out in the Stedelijk’s collection. It is a typical example of how the Western view of the past collected art from outside Europe and North America as something ‘naive’ and ‘primitive’. Artists were inspired by creativity and traditional craftsmanship. In this exhibition I let the public look at the same thing through different glasses. What strikes you most?

Curator of Design Amanda Pinatih

In today’s Stedelijk, research will be given a more prominent role than before. The museum’s own collection and exhibition history is also examined. Sandberg’s choice of these six carpets is enigmatic and fascinating and can be explained within the framework of his time.

Director Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam Rein Wolfs

Research Logs

let’s plunge

Made in Harrania?

by Amanda Pinatih
February 18, 2022/by Carlos

Picasso and the Art of Children

by Amélie Martelle​
January 7, 2022/by Nikolai

How Textiles Talk and What They Have to Say

Essay by Amanda Pinatih
December 16, 2021/by Nikolai

An interview with Ali Selim

Log #6 by Amélie Martelle​
September 14, 2021/by Carlos

Visitors of the Wissa Wassef Centre

Log #5 by Amélie Martelle​
September 1, 2021/by Nikolai

Diving into the Stadsarchief Amsterdam

Log #4 by Amélie Martelle​
August 15, 2021/by Nikolai

Serendipity

Log #3 by Amanda Pinatih
August 1, 2021/by Nikolai

The tapestries IRL

Log #2 by Amanda Pinatih
July 19, 2021/by Nikolai

Meeting the Collection

Log #1 by Amanda Pinatih
July 5, 2021/by Nikolai
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Reda Metwalli, Le Mûrier, 1961. Collectie Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Rawhia Aly, L’arbre et le chat, 1961. Collectie Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Sheila Hicks, Vague Verte, 1974. Collectie Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Dorothy Akpene Amenuke, How Far How Near, 2012. Collectie Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

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Call for Research:Stedelijk  Studies Journal  nr. 13: “Museum-ing: Research in Practice”DEADLINE: September 5, 2022.Our call for research for issue 13 of the Stedelijk Studies Journal seeks out explorations of “Museum-ing”, wherein art-based research is an act or practice of being with the museum creatively.We direct this call to artists, theorists, curators, and scholars whose art-based practices of research address new and old ways of putting one’s work in conversation with the museum—the building, the phantasmatics of the institution, the potency and history of the artworks located therein.We look for submissions that think around and through the museum and propose “museum-ing” as a strategy to examine, prod, and speculate on the historical, present, and future interstices of knowledges and methodologies.What are the potentials for art-based research to transform the concept of “the Museum” into “museum-ing,” and what possibilities does this shift present?All accepted submissions are subject to scholarly or artistic peer review, and all contributors must be open to receive such feedback and work collaboratively toward a final version. As a way to open up the peer-reviewed process further we will compensate published submissions with a fee of € 400 (excl. VAT).IMAGE: @a_n_n_a_m_a_r_i_a__pinaka , “untitled” (part of series Thirsty Pig), 2022. Ink and watercolors.

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Szine # 1 - now available in Dutch! 🇳🇱 Future Origins - Nancy Jouwe writes about the social environment in which the museum came to be and Yvette Mutumba together with Rein Wolfs discuss the future of the museum.
#linkinbio #stedelijkstudies #stedelijkmuseum #stedelijkmuseumamsterdam #decolonizethemuseum @nancyjouwe #yvetttemutumba @reinwolfs

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