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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...
This is the first creative collaboration by the couple: Musician Craig Sutton aka The Flamenco Thief and performance artist and poet Uta Baldauf. Craig and Uta were visiting family in Berlin when, over a big plate of Italian pasta and a bottle of good wine, the carpet project was excitingly presented by Anne, who had previously won piece #65 at the opening of the project in the raffle.
Craig is a busy solo artist from Wiltshire who has been touring all around the world playing Spanish guitar with a contemporary twist. Uta is an East German-born English-based artist and nurse whose home in Gloucestershire is her creative playground and outlet between shift work. Together they share a flat in the countryside near Stroud with high ceilings, a love for food, art, humanity, jackets and live performance.
Unter den Teppich kehren
Auf dem Teppich bleiben
Den roten Teppich aus rollen
Under the carpet lays the floor
The ground resting in darkness
Layers of layer
Twisted fibres
Yarn
Threads over threads
Threads of time
Coding they way into a cover
Stories being told on and about
Through out and beyond
Spilled drinks, food, footsteps
Prayers of hope and despair
Years after years
After month
Weeks
Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
Echoes
Threat over threats
Threats of humanity
Unter den Teppich kehren
Auf dem Teppich bleiben
Anne Haehnel (AH) imagines herself in a conversation with Fragment #65 (F65)
AH: Good day, FRAGMENT NO.65, welcome to your temporary home.
F65: Good day, Anne. I've had bad luck with you: you have no idea about carpets, especially not about Caucasian Dragon carpets, and you don't belong to any cultural institution or network. Why are you even allowed to participate in the art project?
AH: I won you in one of the three draws on the project's launch day and immediately went to see the original at the Museum of Islamic Art. You're just a bit of a doppelganger and could be a little less arrogant.
F65: Hmm... yes, you're right. I apologize! But I would still like to know why, as a carpet novice, you went to the vernissage.
AH: I've known the project leader, Anna Beselin, for decades, and together with my friend Ilse, we decided to show her our respect for her passion project. The fact that my ticket number was drawn during our trip to the Neuen Hof and I became a Collab'er was a huge surprise.
F65: Actually, I quite like it with you. How boring it would have been to have to hang on a wall in an exhibition.
With you, I could lie at the feet
of Eva Evdokimova,
one of the greatest ballerinas
of the romantic classical
ballet of the 20th century.
AH: Yes, that was a great honor for you.
AH: And how did you like being part of the Christmas decoration?
F65: That was a nice gesture.
F65: But even nicer
I found our
trip to the Spree.
AH: After the Christmas break, I will take you to the Goethe Dancers, former students of the Goethe-Gymnasium Lichterfelde, who have dedicated themselves to international dance folklore. There you will meet Anna again.
AH: Dear Fragment #65, it is now time for you to continue your journey, your destination is the cultural city of Stroud, where you are already expected.
F65: Dear Anne, after the wonderful time with you, I look forward to my new home in England.
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...
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.
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.
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?