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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 begins...
...with Medhavi Gandhi from The Heritage Lab
History is a tapestry woven with choices—some deliberate, some inevitable. As part of the CulturalxCollabs project by the Museum for Islamic Art, I received a fragment of a carpet that mirrors the famous 17th century Dragon carpet in the museum’s collection. The original carpet, woven in Caucaus (in what is today Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran) was partially destroyed during the Second World War bombings of Berlin in 1945. Years later, what kind of dialogue can this carpet and its twin inspire?
I turned to The Heritage Lab‘s Instagram community to first understand what the carpet fragment represented to them. This is a screenshot of the Story-poll. Of the 1726 respondents, 44% wondered about wartime decisions and how they shape cities and society.
Inspired by the response, I hosted a critical thinking challenge inviting readers to reflect on how pivotal wartime decisions, both big and small, have shaped the world we live in today. What might have been different if key moments in history had taken another path?
The prompt read: "If you could revisit a WWII moment, what is a decision you would alter? What would you change? And how would it shape the future (of a city / society)?"
To deepen this reflection, I placed the alongside 3 objects from the museum in Chandigarh.
The Partition of India
In the wake of India’s independence after the Second World War, people and cultural heritage found themselves divided, displaced. One half of this footprint of the Buddha (buddhapada) remains in Lahore, while the other is here in Chandigarh.
Warfare
Warfare shaped the Indian subcontinent in ways that still resonate today. This cannon, once wielded by Guru Gobind Singh was used during the siege of Anandpur Sahib in 1700. A reminder of Sikh resilience and resistence, it continues to draw visitors specially to itself in the gallery.
Artist Amarnath Sehgal’s collage
Artist Amarnath Sehgal’s collage is about the storming of the Golden Temple in 1984 and its aftermath. This remains a moment of deep reflection - one where questions of power, faith, and memory continue to shape contemporary narratives.
A common thread
A common thread that emerges from these responses, and the objects from the Chandigarh museum is that war affects millions of people across different regions, communities, and cultures - even in times of conflict, how interconnected lives were. A consequence was migration - Jewish artists in India, Indian soldiers in Britain and so on...today, the legacy of such migrations continue to enrich our societies and histories but somehow those stories need to be retold and remembered.
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.
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?
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.
