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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 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?
