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This fragment is part of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" carpet.
Through the fragment we trace the journey of the fragment owners and their collabs as they explore, experiment and creatively advance socially relevant themes. Here is the fragment as we are sending it on this three and a half-year journey.
Follow this story to observe the transformations the fragment undergoes over the course of these years...
...THE JOURNEY CONTINUES
...with Ramón de la Blanca Torres
At the EASD Val del Omar we received fragment #2 of the Dragon Carpet from the Museum for Islamic Art in Berlin as part of this project.
The fragment has been exhibited in the facilities of our school so that teachers and students can see it in situ and make an aesthetic and symbolic assessment of it.
During the months that the fragment has been on display, four collective projects have been carried out among our students using the fragment as a reference point.
The photography students have documented the fragment from a technical perspective so that our students and teachers can take an exact reference of size and colours.
The fashion design students worked from two different perspectives
They developed the concept of a fashion collection taking fragment #2 as a reference.
Based on fragment #2, the third year Fashion Design students have reinterpreted the piece creating an original design that combines the past with 3D technology. Each student has reinterpreted herself as a 3D avatar and has designed an outfit that represents the union between both disciplines, textile and fashion.
The textile art students have been inspired by this piece to carry out a practical exercise of a flat carpet...
...woven according to the Turkish kilim technique with the intention of connecting or linking with the ancestral techniques of Caucasian origin as is the case of the origin of the carpet that concerns us.To do this, they have studied the composition shown in the fragment, focusing on each of the motifs that can be found in it. In such a way that each of the pupils chose a motif for the composition of their exercise that could give them some reference to the morphology of the dragon hidden in the carpet. Starting from each one of the parts that draw the geometry of the fragment, they have wanted to interpret them as pieces of a puzzle that would integrate and make up the dragon (tail, scales, legs and foot, zigzag, eyes, colours, etc) with the ‘purpose of finding’ the form of the dragon that originally inspired and gave its name to the carpet. We have used wool dyed with natural dyes to obtain the colour from artisan processes of mordanting and dyeing of the fibre, resulting in a series of small fragments of approximately 20x30 cm woven with the high-warp technique in taffeta weave on portable wooden frames.
Participating in the project has strengthened the ties between the educational community and has encouraged critical reflection in the fields of aesthetics, technology and sociology.
Technical documentation of the carpet. Coordination: Professor Paloma Brinkman.
Fashion design projects: coordinated by teachers Maribel Fajardo and Mercedes Fernández.
Textile art project: coordinated by teacher Arancha Girón.
Academic coordination: Ramón de la Blanca.
Expoisitival coordination: Juan Manuel Peregrina.
...and on we go...
...with MAO's team
SURVIVORS.
The Project #CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future.
Fragments of a Tragic History as an Example of Rebirth
Culture in pieces... pieces of culture. By changing a simple preposition, the pain inflicted by destruction is transformed into the hope brought by art. However, this play on words does seem insufficient to reshape the reality in which we live. Nevertheless, we want to try at MAO in Turin, within the frame of Trad u/i zioni d’Eurasia exhibition, presenting the project #CulturalxCollabs – Weaving the future promoted by the Museum for Islamic Art in Berlin. This project unfolds the tragic story of a Caucasian carpet burnt by a bomb at the end of World War II. Restored in 2004 for the museum’s centennial, the carpet is reborn in 2023 with a copy becoming the protagonist of the project that unites individuals worldwide. Its purpose is to learn from the past, celebrate the present and collectively shape a future based on appreciation, shared responsibility and mutual curiosity. The 1:1 scale copy of the carpet was later cut into 100 equal pieces. These fragments will continue to travel the world, entrusted to temporary owners, until they return to Berlin in 2027, where they will be reassembled in the museum’s renovated large carpet gallery, side by side with the original. At MAO, in the monumental Mazzonis Hall, fragment #2/100 is on display (the Bruschettini Foundation for Islamic and Asian Art in Genoa, which received it at the launch of the project, has decided to designate the MAO as its next owner, and the fragment will continue from Turin on its journey worldwide). The contemporary fragment is placed in dialogue with two historical examples of Caucasian carpets (16th - 17th centuries) and the installation MOSADEGH (2023) by Shadi Harouni (1985, Hamedan, Iran).
The word MOSADEGH, the starting point of the artist’s reflection, evolves over time to become MOSADEGH and then MOSADEGH, a name that transcends its lexical confines to signify ‘truth’, then ultimately ‘death by heartbreak’. Legend has it that the bombing’s devastation, which led to the destruction of at least 20 of the most important antique carpets in Berlin’s museums, led in 1945 to the ‘death by heartbreak’ of Friedrich Sarre who, together with Wilhelm von Bode, founder of the Museum of Islamic Art in 1904, had created the museum’s extraordinary collection of carpets. This intricate interplay of narratives within the exhibition invites profound introspection on the complexity of relationships and the possibilities of circulation of art objects, defying geographic and political boundaries alike. In this complexity of meanings, the contemporary fragment, as well as its translated original, becomes a ‘surviving piece’ reborn from the destruction and pain of conflict. Through the #CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the future initiative, each fragment becomes a powerful mediator and catalyst of experiences and inspirations that encapsulates hundreds of interwoven stories: a broken tradition translated into a powerful and saving message of rebirth.
The journey begins... with Elisabetta Raffo
No boundaries of space and time
The desire to exhibit fragment #2 at the MAO - Museum of Oriental Art in Turin stems from the close collaboration between the Turin museum institution and the Bruschettini Foundation for Islamic and Asian Art.
The carpet was included in the temporary exhibition ‘Tradu/izioni d'Eurasia. Two Thousand Years of Visual and Material Culture Between the Mediterranean and East Asia', which recounts the historical and cultural intertwining that has taken place, and continues to take place in the contemporary world, between the Asian and European continents.
Carpet fragment #2, which survived the bombings of World War II, acts as a counterpoint to the contemporary work MOSADEGH by Shadi Harouni, both traces of layered narratives that, at different times, recount first-hand human events characterised by the horrors of war.
The curatorial desire to exhibit works that deal with themes such as war and violence leads the exhibition to show how suffering and destruction are themes that, although in totally different times and ways, know no boundaries of space and time.
Front and Back
About the Project
The Museum for Islamic Art's project, #CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the future, celebrates the transformative power of cultural exchange and the shared threads that unite us all. All the things we love, have loved and will ever love come from cultural exchange, migration and diversity, or as we like to call it #CulturalxCollabs.
100 carpet fragments, cut from a replica of the iconic dragon carpet, will travel the world (delivered by DHL). The fragments will ignite #CulturalxCollabs with co-creators, inspiring human ingenuity, fostering community and ultimately demonstrating how cultural exchange enriches all our lives.
Follow #CulturalxCollabs on Instagram as the project unfolds...
...or learn more here
Weaving the Future
Join us on a journey with 100 carpet fragments as they travel around the world for three and a half years, finding temporary homes while bridging cultural boundaries, fostering worldwide community united by the power of human stories.
Fragment Journeys
100 carpet fragments part of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" project. Follow their journeys through the ever changing owners' over three and a half years.
Where is the Dragon?
The star of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" project is a so-called Caucasian dragon carpet from the 17th century. A dragon carpet - all well and good - but: where is the dragon?
