Creative Workshop: Storytelling, matters of everyday politics, and textile

*The 07/09 is postponed to 14/09, 18.30, due to the weather conditions.

 Prompted by the outdoor installation Return to Sender by the African art collective NEST, currently on display at the SNFCC, a series of creative workshops is organized, in which storytelling meets textile meets everyday politics.

Through the artwork Return to Sender, we see how small-scale practices, such as the donation of clothes, are linked to state policies of exporting pile fabrics from the global North to the global South, the latter being the place where the majority of unwanted clothing and other products are discarded. A large percentage of these materials is impossible to reuse and ends up in landfills, creating greater problems than those their shipment was supposed to be solving.

What is particularly interesting in the installation of the NEST collective is that they are exhibiting the pile fabrics known in Kenya as mitumba in their actual form, building with them a space where a video is projected in which the aforementioned issue is discussed, thus weaving a political narrative that is both personal and collective at the same time.

Taking our cue from the data and concepts found in Return to Sender, and in the narrative aspect of the NEST collective’s practice, we will explore the relation between politics, storytelling and material, over the course of three meetings. We will discover the ways in which we may move from an idea to its realization, and how visual arts can become a vehicle through which we may highlight issues that concern us.

At our first meeting, we will examine issues of everyday politics with regard to clothing, and construct small-scale textile sculptures by upcycling fabrics and other materials. During our second meeting, we will construct mixed-technique textile artworks, exploring the concept of artivism. At our third meeting, we will focus on the practice of the installation and the concept of cooperation and collectivity, creating a larger-scale group artwork/narrative.

Over the course of the workshops, we will experiment with a variety of techniques and materials/mediums. In raising awareness on issues of reuse, upcycling and environmentally responsible artistic practice, we recommend that you bring along items you no longer use, both textile and non-textile, as well as other objects or random finds, which are associated with issues that concern you and which you would like to integrate into your compositions or experiment with.

Design - Implementation: Elektra Stampoulou, visual artist and researcher, ARTWORKS Fellow

Workshop Support: Maria Louizou, sculptor and educator, ARTWORKS Fellow

Thursday 04/05, 18.30-21.00

Thursday 08/06, 18.30 -21.00

Thursday 06/07, 19.00-21.30

Thursday 03/08, 19.00-21.30 

Thursday 14/09, 18.30-21.00

Mediterranean Garden 
For adults
Up to 20 participants 
Free admission; online preregistration required 

For the workshop on 04/05, pre-registration starts on 28/04 at 12.00

For the workshop on 08/06, pre-registration starts on 01/06 at 12.00

For the workshop on 06/07, pre-registration starts on 29/6 at 12.00

For the workshop on 03/08, pre-registration starts on 27/07 at 12.00

For the workshop on 07/09, pre-registration starts on 31/08 at 12.00