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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...
...and on we go...
...with Christine Kensche
I live in Jaffa, Israel, where my neighbours hang their carpets from their roofs and balconies for ventilation. Arabs and Jews live together here in a very small space and, despite the war, meet peacefully every day and are mostly open-minded. The muezzin naturally calls loudly to prayer and on hot summer nights the door to the synagogue is open and the chants can be heard outside. Eating together at a Bulgarian, Palestinian or Ashkenazi Café and having a chat between neighbours on the street is part of life in this place. My neighbour Abdallah likes to sit in his car in front of his house, making coffee on a camping gas burner and listening to Iraqi love songs. He greets every neighbour by name and asks about their day. This is how cultures interweave, how coexistence and exchange can work in a small place whose will for peace is ultimately greater than the hatred around it.
Video: The carpet fragment #3 breathes Middle Eastern air and music on my terrace in Jaffa, Israel, next to the mosque on Jerusalem Boulevard.
The journey begins...
...with Ulf Poschardt
As editor-in-chief of WELT, Israel is particularly close to my heart - not only, but also in foreign reporting. Israel is a special country, the cradle of the three book religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, a small country full of historical evidence from thousands of years, but still rooted in the present; nowhere is politics so less luxuriously distinguished and so much radical realpolitik as here. The terrible war that began on October 7th shows once again that the country is still surrounded by enemies, even if, which is a sign of hope, relations with some Arab states have improved (and are continuing to improve despite the war).
The Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor once wrote in the WELT that German-Israeli relations will be successful "if we continually promote encounters between young people from both countries and look forward without forgetting the past." As someone who is no longer really young, I would therefore like to send the carpet fragment to the outstanding WELT Israel correspondent Christine Kensche as a small sign of international understanding.
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?
