| by Barbara Pavan |Images ph.credit Chiara Marci The MEOC Oliva Carta Cannas Ethnographic Museum, the largest in Sardinia, preserves a rich heritage of testimonies of textile activity deeply rooted in the culture of this town in Gallura. So much so, in fact, that the reconstruction of the stazzo—the typical ancient Gallurese house—presented within the museum, is hosted inside the restored and renovated building that once housed the first textile school. The recognitions and certificates of merit awarded to the school are on display inside the museum itself. The exhibition path showcases testimonies of domestic life and local productions, traditional and historical costumes, and above all, the art of weaving—especially…

| by Susanna Cati | The Museum of Civilizations, located in the EUR district of Rome in two symmetrical buildings—Il Palazzo delle Scienze and Il Museo delle Civiltà e delle Tradizioni—is a complex institution. The museum itinerary of the Palazzo delle Arti e Tradizioni Popolari Italiane is currently divided into three interconnected thematic sections. The first section describes various religious ceremonies and includes scale models of shoulder-borne processional structures or their original monumental versions. Next are the rooms dedicated to transport, festivals, games, and open-air performances. The second section displays everything related to domestic living, while the third explores various trades, from craftsmanship to maritime, agricultural, and pastoral work. Visiting…

| by Eleonora Giglione | There is a silent yet tenacious bond between the art of weaving and the world of computation. An ancient thread that spans centuries and technologies, capable of linking the manual intuition of weavers with the abstraction of the most sophisticated machines. From mechanical looms to punched cards, from visual algorithms to neural bending and quantum computers, thought becomes weave, interlace, variation. In this journey through patterns, logics, and languages, we rediscover the symbolic roots of programming and open up a new space for imagining intelligence as an expanded form of creation. Among the pioneers in the history of computer science, Heinz Zemanek holds a unique…

Located in Soncino (CR), Italy, near the Sforza Fortress, the Museo della Seta di Soncino (Silk Museum of Soncino) is housed within the former Filanda Meroni, a 19th-century industrial complex that ceased operations in 1961. The museum showcases the traditional art of silk production, documenting the entire process from silkworm breeding to the extraction of silk thread. Visitors can explore ancient tools and techniques used in this craft, following the journey from silkworm eggs to the final silk thread.The museum was established thanks to the private collection of its curator, Enzo Corbani, who began gathering historical artifacts over 20 years ago and continues to expand the collection today.Silkworm farming played…

This volume celebrates over forty years of history of the Textile Study Group of New York (1977-2019), one of the most important and long-standing artistic communities dedicated to textile art. The book offers a valuable testimony to the evolution of the group, through a brief yet meaningful historical reconstruction, a rich portfolio of works by 168 members, and a critical essay by Joanne Mattera, which analyzes the rise and growing recognition of fiber as an artistic medium in the contemporary art world.If you are fascinated by the world of textile art and wish to explore the extraordinary variety of approaches, techniques, and visions that define this field, this book is…

Contemporary Embroidery Art | by izn | From Thread to Needle by Charlotte Vannier is the perfect book for anyone looking to grasp the state of contemporary embroidery art (as of 2019) in an empirical way—through the works of 82 artists, aged between 33 and 87, all active on the international scene. Each artist is given between 2 and 8 pages filled with large, bright, and detailed photographs showcasing their work. At the beginning of each section, there is a concise yet valuable artist profile—including birth date and place, current residence, and website—which I found particularly useful (and, in a way, reassuring). The book strikes the right balance between text…

Weaving is a practice usually assigned to women, to children, to the more neglected social classes. However, it is also the practice which more than any other was altered by the industrial and capitalistic society. From the enclosure of domestic manufactures to the alienation caused by the factory work, it was indeed through needles and threads that these workers were able to externate their discomfort towards an unfair world. Protext! Quando il tessuto si fa manifesto (When fabric becomes a manifesto) is the book published in 2021 on occasion of the homonymous exhibition at the Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, which presents eight artists: Serapis Maritime Corporation; Pia Camil;…