In Kabbalah, tzimtzum describes the first step whereby God began the process of creation, contracting his own essence to allow enough room for our material reality. By compressing his infinite self/light he allowed for a space in which a finite world seemingly independent of God could exist. And every day, by tikun we seek to repair the darkness in this world: our good deeds reunite our spirit with this infinite light through the transcendence of the material universe.
The ladder has many interpretations. It can be seen as a metaphor for our life, as a link, a liminal space between birth and death, heaven and earth, tzimtzum and tikun, matter and spirit. As in the story of Jacob’s ladder in the Torah, the bridge goes two ways and the squares can be seen as the angelic messengers in Jacob’s dream. For me, the squares can also be seen as stepping stones on the path of spiritual attainment, of transcendence.
Barbara Heller
Currently one of the oldest of the Textile Biennials / Triennials will take place again from 9 May to 30 October 2016 at the Central Museum of Textiles in lodz, Poland. This 15th Triennial of Tapestry is an invitational exhibition with contemporary textile art as its subject ( in Poland the notion of “tapestry” is covering a broad scope of textile art techniques and materials). On 11 November 2014 the “national consultants” were chosen by the Programming Board, made up of members from the Central Museum of Textiles, the City of Lodz and further institutions like the lodz University, under the leadership of museum director Marcin Oko. In most cases the Programming Board decided to turn to persons and institutions with whom it has cooperated before. In several cases (usually at a joint request of artists from a given country) the Programming Board selected a new national consultant.
The national consultants were than asked to choose up to three artists from their country as participants for the forthcoming Triennial. You will find the names of the consultants together with the artists chosen under the above mentioned link! Even though one might regret that this is not an open competition, it is nonetheless a very prestigious event with a lot of press coverage for the participating artists. All those interested in textile art will get to see a lot of good work in several exhibitions taking place in lodz. The opening festivities of the Triennial and the diverse accompanying exhibitions usually will cover several days. Lodz will be the meeting point for textile art with a world-wide scope.
The Programming Board had a further meeting on 22 february 2016. As soon as the exact dates and titles of all the exhibitions in Lodz ( and in Poland ) are known, this information will be published here!
Peter Horn made this photo at the Hamburg Art Hall, replacing the work of art with his own tapestry. This way he feels to almost have had an exhibition there! This ironic way of critique to the choices of the art hall curators is combined with a new way of taking photos with unexpected point of views
