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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 Jorge Alberto Romero Canseco
The Thoughts of the Dragon
Fragment #63 of the Dragon Carpet, and its nature as a reproduction of a historical original, prompted me to engage with it creatively. Rather than approaching the work through nostalgia for the original, I chose to honor its status as a copy through the concept of reproduction. This intervention unfolded in two dimensions: on the one hand, the multiplication of the image, and on the other, the translation of the textile technique.
La reflexión del dragón
El fragmento #63 de la alfombra del Dragón y su la naturaleza como réplica de un original histórico me dio la pauta para una exploración creativa. En lugar de abordar la pieza desde la nostalgia del original, decidí honrar su condición de copia a través del concepto de reproducción. Esta intervención se estructuró en dos dimensiones: por un lado la multiplicación de la imagen y por otro la traducción de la técnica textil.
First dimension: Reflection (optical repetition)
The first phase consisted of a physical play with mirrors, aimed at expanding the geometry of the textile through three creative exercises:
The first focused on visual multiplication: using a system of opposing mirrors, an infinite sequence of faithful reflections was created, mimicking the reproduction inherent in the concept of copying.
The second exploration involved experimenting with symmetry and angles: by varying the mirror angles, the original motifs and colors were reproduced, generating new kaleidoscopic compositions that do not exist in the physical work but originate from it. This resulted in optical repetitions with new dynamics and interpretations.
The third exercise focused on fragmentation: through the strategic placement of mirrors, the image of the original textile was broken apart and its sub-units deconstructed, highlighting the smallest details which, once isolated, acquire new aesthetic meaning.
Primera dimensión: El Reflejo (Repetición óptica)
La primera fase consistió en un juego físico de espejos diseñado para expandir la geometría del textil en tres ejercicios creativos:
El primero consistió en la multiplicación visual: Utilizando un sistema de espejos enfrentados, se generó una repetición de reflejos fieles e infinitos, emulando la producción inherente al concepto de réplica.
La segunda exploración consistió en experimentar con la simetría y angulación: Al variar los ángulos de los espejos, se reprodujeron los motivos y colores originales, creando nuevas composiciones caleidoscópicas que no existen en la pieza física pero que emanan de ella, dando como resultado repeticiones ópticas con nuevas dinámicas y lecturas.
Finalmente el tercer ejercicio se centró en la fragmentación: La posición estratégica de los espejos permitió fragmentar la imagen del textil original, deconstruyendo la sub-unidad de la alfombra para resaltar detalles mínimos que, al ser aislados, cobran una nueva relevancia estética.
Second dimension: From pixel to thread (digital and manual reproduction)
The second phase focused on the hidden anatomy of the textile: its reverse side. The back of the carpet reveals the honesty of the making process and its technical structure; it is also a part that is usually excluded when artworks are displayed and rarely given the opportunity to express its own aesthetic.
This dimension was approached in three main steps:
It began with documentation and selection: a high-resolution photograph of the reverse side of the textile was taken. From this image, a section of the original pattern was selected; the chosen fragment displayed a wide variety of colors and forms.
Segunda dimensión: Del píxel a la hebra (Reproducción digital y manual)
La segunda fase se centró en la anatomía oculta del textil: su revés. La cara posterior de la alfombra revela la honestidad del proceso y la estructura técnica, además de ser una parte mayoritariamente excluida en la exhibición de las piezas artísticas, sin oportunidad de revelar su propia estética.
Esta dimensión se abordó en tres etapas generales:
Se inició con la etapa de captura y selección, se tomó una fotografía en alta resolución del revés del textil. De esta imagen, se eligió una fracción del patrón original, la sección elegida mostraba una importante variedad de colores y formas.
In the second step...
the data was translated using design software. The rectangular fragment was processed into a module of colored dots, reinterpreting the carpet’s threads as units of digital information. Each colored dot was assigned a code, which served as the basis for finding its equivalent in a palette of embroidery threads.
En un segundo momento se hizo la traducción de los datos mediante un software para diseño. El fragmento rectangular se procesó para convertirlo en un módulo de puntos de colores, reinterpretando los hilos de la alfombra como unidades de información digital. Cada punto de color, se le asignó una clave que sirvió de base para buscar su homólogo en una paleta de hilos para bordar.
Finally, the reproduction of the textile pattern was carried out. The digital pattern, composed of ten different color tones, served as a template for a new embroidery in cross-stitch technique on No. 20 marquisette fabric. The module was repeated four times in a mirrored horizontal and vertical arrangement, resulting in a scaled-down reproduction of part of the carpet. Through abstraction, color, and its own reverse side, it enters into a new dialogue with the original fragment.
Por último se realizó la ejecución de la reproducción del motivo textil. El patrón digital, con una síntesis de 10 matices de color diferentes, sirvió como guía para un nuevo bordado en técnica de punto de cruz, sobre tela marquiset del no. 20. El módulo fue repetido cuatro veces en una disposición de espejo horizontal y vertical, creando una reproducción a escala menor de un fragmento de la alfombra, lo que dio como resultado un nuevo diálogo con la fracción original a través de la abstracción y el color, además de su propio revés.
final results
Being able to participate in the project “CulturalxCollabs – Weaving the Future” and working on this piece was an extremely enriching experience and a journey of creative discovery. By viewing the textile not as a static object but as a source of new images and processes, I was able to understand the “copy” as a seed of infinite visual possibilities.
The transition from the infinite image in the mirrors to the tactile precision of cross-stitch completes a cycle of reproduction that honors the past while proposing an alternative language between cultural, technical, geographical, and historical dialogue.
My thanks go to the Museum for Islamic Art for the privilege of accessing this work and for the openness to enable this interaction, which goes beyond mere technical observation, contemplation, and artistic admiration.
Por último se realizó la ejecución de la reproducción del motivo textil. El patrón digital, con una síntesis de 10 matices de color diferentes, sirvió como guía para un nuevo bordado en técnica de punto de cruz, sobre tela marquiset del no. 20. El módulo fue repetido cuatro veces en una disposición de espejo horizontal y vertical, creando una reproducción a escala menor de un fragmento de la alfombra, lo que dio como resultado un nuevo diálogo con la fracción original a través de la abstracción y el color, además de su propio revés.
Ser parte del proyecto de "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" y trabajar con esta pieza ha resultado en una experiencia y exploración creativa sumamente satisfactoria. Abordar el textil no como un objeto estático, sino como un generador de nuevas imágenes y procesos, permitió entender la "copia" como una semilla de infinitas posibilidades visuales.
La transición de la imagen infinita en los espejos a la rigurosidad táctil del punto de cruz cierra un ciclo de reproducción que honra el pasado mientras propone un lenguaje alterno entre el diálogo cultural, técnico, geográfico e histórico.
Mi agradecimiento al Museo de arte Islámico por el privilegio de acceder a esta pieza y por la apertura para permitir esta interacción que trasciende la mera observación técnica, la contemplación y admiración artística.
...AND THE JOURNEY CONTINUES...
...with Israel Gutiérrez
Great stories are made up of moments and fragments, just like our lives in this new place, Oclaro, in the San Martín Mexicapan neighborhood of Oaxaca (a gated residential complex of 21 buildings, each with 16 apartments). Thanks to our friends and the deep well, this place seems to be becoming permanent (Monterrey-Mannheim, Barcelona-Riomaba, Dublin-Valencia, Puebla, Heidelberg—past lives are behind us).
The “Evening of Grilled Bananas”
The “Evening of Grilled Bananas” with friends makes us dream of a long stay here and weave moments of community. This moment is already unforgettable: the first spark, then charcoal turning to embers, plantains with their charred peels, to be enjoyed alone or with fresh cheese, spreadable cheese, condensed milk, hazelnut cream, and/or cinnamon powder.
An unexpected guest
With full stomachs, curiosity could also be satisfied. And so, an unexpected guest was brought forth. He arrived covered, greeted everyone, and was carefully felt. Who could he be, what could he be? A puzzle - but it didn’t sound like separate pieces. It was light, maybe a photograph? No one imagined it was a “carpet” that had come from Berlin, let alone that it had been made somewhere in the Caucasus. Where is that?
Our lives in this group, like the carpet, have visible and hidden parts.
Now that we knew its origins and the reason for its visit, it was treated with greater closeness and trust. It was not like those in museums—distant, voiceless, lifeless. Instead, it was asked to tell stories, to speak of the other pieces we had not seen, and we searched for shared experiences: connections.
Everyone has two names
But yesterday, we got to know each other a little better. For example, we learned each other’s other names: Ivonne is also Norma, like her mother; América is also Mayrlen; Francisco is Juan—but in Guanajuato; Lucía is also Guadalupe; Luis-Enrique, María-Elena; Germán is simply Germán, just as Gloria is simply Gloria; Franziska is Martha, and the children are Fernanda Hellie, Luis Ramón, Mateo Alejandro, Ilithia, and Tobias—who has yet to reveal his second name.
Spontaneously and joyfully, someone asks for a photo with the guest, then another, and then one or two more—everyone together. Pictures—memories of its visit, of the emotional bonds that led us to leave our seats, go to the basketball court, and keep asking questions, talking to it, until we called it by its two names: "Carpet/Teppich" and "Sixty-Three/dreiundsechzig" [tépij and drai-un-céj-six]
...and on we go...
...with Robert Markens
The carpet fragment asks us to reflect on signification and meaning. To do so, we tap into our own personal experience with carpets and our knowledge of carpets from other cultures and other times. This reflection may be considered a personal exercise in experiencing our shared humanity.
This carpet fragment raises a number of questions on the part of those who see it. Perhaps an initial question for many might be this.
How do the details of this fragment relate to the carpet’s overall design?
Are the sinuous curves in red and gray part of a representative landscape or elements of a scene with figures, human, or otherwise?
Or are they part of a geometric and rhythmic visual field designed to evoke an optically pleasing and aesthetic experience on the part of those who beheld it when it was once whole?
For those who live in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, the carpet fragment readily brings to mind the temples and palaces of Mitla constructed by the pre-Hispanic Zapotecs whose descendants live in the region today. Mitla’s monuments are considered crown-jewels of the ancient Zapotec architectural tradition. Hewn from blocks of white volcanic tuff, the monuments achieve a striking visual impact through the repetition of bold geometric design known as the step fret, which fills broad horizontal panels adorning the facades of the buildings. Under the bright sun, the panels of step frets (and numerous variations) create mesmerizing visual fields that arouse sentiments of admiration for the skill of their creators and in turn evoke a number of questions: What functions did the buildings serve? Who occupied them? And why the step-fret? What did it mean?
...The journey continues...
...with Franziska Neff
Welcome to carpet piece #63 in Oaxaca, Mexico.
You arouse curiosity, as a fragment you invite dialogue, your edges are open, the white surfaces offer space, the fragmentary allows connections. We invite you to connect to realities here. You have landed in the branch of the Art History Institute of UNAM, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and even have to make yourself very narrow to fit through the entrance. And that puts you right in the centre of things. In the middle of the historic centre of a World Heritage city that is up for sale and struggling with gentrification.
What is tradition, what is authenticity?
It is quite symptomatic that in order to find the entrance to the university, you first have to wind your way through a corridor of stalls that have been occupying the public space for many years, offering cheap arts and crafts - and what is declared as such - in order to finance a social protest that seems to have almost been forgotten. And this is precisely where our decentralised academic institution is located, with the mission of critically reflecting on the past and present.
I wonder what that does to you?
With a multi-layered object, a copy (or should we say reconstruction or reconceptualisation?) whose origins are geographically and temporally distant from here.
From the upper floor, you have a clear view of the cathedral. Although it presents itself as solid and safe, it has undergone many reconstructions and changes over the centuries due to the numerous earthquakes. Before that, the back and forth, the here and now of everyday life...
... until the boundaries become blurred.
You'll find peace and quiet in the library. Your tactile qualities form an inviting contrast to the rows of book spines and the solid wooden tables, as well as the upholstered chairs that invite you to linger. In the background, Beatriz de la Fuente's photograph watches over the collection, which was once her private library on ancient American art and is now being continuously expanded for the teaching and research of the institute's members. They deal with local topics such as rock paintings at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Zapotec symbols of power, the modern monument cult or indigenous brass bands around 1900, but also with the transfer of medieval pictorial motifs, altar retables in Ibero-America or Central American art of the 20th century. The library inspires us to get to know and create worlds, to discover stories, to weave them anew and further.
Just like you, who are weaving your very own story.
I invite you to collaborate briefly on a project of academic exchange, more precisely on Miradas - Journal of Art and Cultural History of the Americas and the Iberian Peninsula. It is edited by Miriam Oesterreich (Berlin University of the Arts) and myself (Franziska Neff, UNAM, Oaxaca), but is a project of the Institute of European Art at Heidelberg University and the Heidelberg University Library.
You can already see how it interweaves different geographies from the ground up. Its name means ‘gazes’, in other words it invites you to look at certain regions - which from Germany seem to be on the periphery of the public consciousness - just as you invite us to take a closer look; and to talk about what we see, to exchange ideas.
Just like the magazine, which is multilingual, with the aim of promoting dialogue between and exchange about historically and contemporarily globally networked regions.
The journey begins...
...with Dr. phil. Monica Pacheco
This fragment of the caucasian dragon carpet begins its journey to Mexico together with another fragment located in Hamburg, Germany: the Nochixtlan Fragment. Although the Nochixtlan fragment is earlier than the carpet, it too was part of a longer story pertaining people and territories from the Mixteca Region in Oaxaca, Mexico.
The dragon carpet also intertwines iconographically with Mexico where the god Quetzalcoatl, known as the feathered serpent, resembles to a dragon figure.
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?
