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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 Diego Guzman Penella
Fragment #93: A dialogue in color and moments during a stroll in Coyoacán, Mexico City
I took fragment #93 of the Dragon Carpet for a walk around my favorite neighborhood in Mexico City, keeping my eyes peeled and looking for inspiration.
Coyoacán is a place full of history, color and tradition. As I walked, I paid attention to the shapes and colors around me, thinking about how different they are to the carpet’s motif and color palette.
After about an hour, I reached the center of Coyoacán, buzzing as it usually is on a Saturday morning. I headed toward the market, but before going in I wandered through the street art fair that sets up next to it every weekend. I looked at paintings, sculptures, prints and textiles, searching for something that would spark curiosity.
When I first saw Sober Palma’s work, something immediately caught my eye. She is a Venezuelan textile artist (@sobercrochetart) who has been living in Mexico for the past few years, working with embroidery and crochet techniques. The colors and motifs in her pieces are striking. We spoke for a while and I told her about the CulturalxCollabs initiative and my idea of taking fragment #93 of the Dragon Carpet out into the city looking for dialogue. She was genuinely interested in the project and we also had a generous exchange about her work and process. I was especially drawn to her series depicting specific moments in time and place: a sunset at the beach in Puerto Escondido or the jacarandas blooming in Mexico City in the spring.
Inspired by this dialogue, after strolling through the market, surrounded by vibrant colors and layered textures, I headed home and reached out to another textile artist I know to tell her about the encounter and the project. Daniela Guzmán (@lacrisalidahumana) shared that after having her son last year, she has struggled to find time for her textile practice. This year she began a new project that directly addresses that struggle. On a 2 x 1.5 blank canvas, she drafted a grid of 32 square quadrants, representing 32 weeks. The intention is to cover each square with a simple stitch. To fully complete one square, she would need to work 2.5 hours every day. That is rarely possible. Life interrupts. Motherhood interrupts. Other responsibilities interrupt. Each square becomes a record of the time she is able to dedicate to her creative work. Some will be complete. Some will remain partially unfinished. Every time she has to stop because something demands her attention, she leaves the thread hanging. She showed me photos of how her project is going and I immediately thought of how the palette is completely different from the Dragon Carpet: black, red and white. The result is simple yet powerful in composition, full of meaning. It quietly documents the balancing act of being both mother and artist, navigating different parts of her life at once.
As an architect, I have always admired textiles from a certain distance. With respect, but also separation. It is a very different medium from what I am used to working with: brick, mortar, wood. But this encounter, this dialogue between colors, cultures and time, has made me look at it through a different lens.
I am drawn to the way Sober Palma captures a moment through embroidery. Daniela Guzmán does something similar, though on a different scale. Instead of a sunset or a blooming tree, she captures a year of her life, a period of return to her practice. Different stories, same language. A moment in time, stitched. Their pieces brought me back to the Dragon Carpet, to the hands that wove it, the moment it was created in and all other moments it has witnessed. The Dragon Carpet and the work of these two contemporary textile artists communicate, dialoguing across time and history.
May this fragment continue to travel, to connect and to hold moments along the way.
The Journey Begins...
...WITH THE JUAN CARLOS Barrientos
Fragment #93 of the replica of famous 400-year-old Dragon Carpet began its global journey by being a guest of the European Heritage Volunteers Network and the Open Air Museum of Lithuania (Lietuvos Liaudies Buities Muziejus). This momentous occasion took place at the 2023 European Heritage Volunteers Conference “Heritage and People," hosted by the Open Air Museum of Lithuania in Rumšiškės, Lithuania, on the 6th of October, 2023. The event was part of the 3-day “Heritage Forum” jointly organised by the Open Air Museum of Lithuania and the Ministry of Culture of Lithuania.
The fragment was introduced to an audience comprising heritage professionals and representatives from heritage institutions and organisations across Europe who attended the conference. They learned about the rich history of the carpet and the profound symbolism behind its journey. Juan Carlos Barrientos presented the carpet, and it was greeted on behalf of the event by Gita Šapranauskaitė and Aistė Lazauskienė, Director and Deputy Director at the Open Air Museum of Lithuania resp., by Sigita Bugeniené, Advisor at the Cultural Heritage Policy Group of the Ministry of Culture of Lithuania, and Bert Ludwig, Director of European Heritage Volunteers, who extended their warm greetings to the project CulturalxCollabs. Weaving the Future.
In the upcoming months before the time is due to pass the carpet fragment to the next collaborator, the carpet will travel to Honduras to meet with the famous Lenca indigenous women weavers of Intibucá, as well as meeting the heritage authorities of Honduras.
Honduras Calling!
March, 2024
Intibucá, Honduras
As part of the CulturalxCollabs project, I had the remarkable opportunity to visit El Cacao in the mountains of the Intibucá region of Honduras, where I met with Enemesia Gonzalez, an indigenous Lenca weaver, bringing with me fragment #93 of Berlin’s Dragon Carpet.
My visit aimed to bridge two distinctive mountain weaving traditions: the intricate patterns of the Caucasus Dragon Carpet and the vibrant, woolen textiles of the Lenca people, renowned for their role in shaping the modern Lenca living culture and being protagonists of a new wave in national identity constructions in Honduras. This encounter not only highlighted the rich tapestry of Lenca traditions passed through generations but also illustrated how global and local cultural narratives can intertwine, fostering a deeper appreciation and understanding of our shared cultural heritage.
Enemesia expressed joy in sharing her vibrant Lenca weaving arts and participating in the CulturalxCollabs project. She also voiced the importance of Hondurans recognising their artisanal heritage and addressed the ongoing struggles for cultural recognition faced by the Lenca people. Despite the emerging appreciation of their colourful cloths as new symbols of Honduras’ cultural identity, Enemesia highlighted that the Lenca community continues to be overlooked and marginalised, struggling with poverty and lack of real representation in the broader national narrative.
Mayan Motifs Carpet
May, 2024
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
During a brief visit to the National University of Honduras’ Center of Art and Culture of Comayagüela in Tegucigalpa, “Mayan Motifs Carpet,” a rare woven artwork by Honduran artist A. López Rodezno, was displayed alongside fragment #93 of the “Dragon Carpet” from the “CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future” project. The visit was marked by discussions led by Joel Barahona, an expert in López Rodezno’s work, Ms. Nadia Caceres Head of the Museum Dpt. and Dr. Olga Joya, the Director of CAC-UNAH, focusing on the comparison of these culturally significant pieces.
Artistic connection between the historical and the contemporary
This special gathering, highlighted the cultural significance and artistic connection between the historical and the contemporary. The integration of the “Dragon Carpet” fragment with López Rodezno’s “Mayan Motifs Carpet” at CAC-UNAH provided an enriching experience, celebrating the legacy of Honduran art and fostering a deeper understanding of cultural heritage through international collaboration.
A key figure in Honduran art
A. López Rodezno, a key figure in Honduran art, was the first Director of Honduras’ Academy of Arts (Bellas Artes), and the National Painter for the Regime of Tiburcio Carias Andino (1933-1949). He created “Mayan Motifs Carpet” circa 1970, at a later stage of his life when he began experimenting with other forms of plastic art. The carpet was to serve as a representative of the rich cultural identity of Honduras inspired in the Ancient Maya. His art, as expressed in numerous paintings, murals, ceramics and engravings, as well as in book illustrations, beautifully showcases the country’s glorified indigenous past while romanticizing the rural life of the “hard working Honduran peasant”, making his contributions invaluable in representing Honduran national identity as it was conceived in the 20th century through visual arts.
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?
