The exhibition We are Collecting Today for Tomorrow by Marielle MacLeman builds on the artist's 2023 residency at the Centre for Research of Fashion and Clothing (CIMO), during which she drew inspiration from the rich local textile archives (Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb and CIMO) and textile production practices (Regeneracija, Zabok). Marielle's participation in the residency could be seen as a journey into the "ethnographic imaginary" (a term we owe to F. Kurasawa), which was then translated onto the surfaces of carpets and textile paintings. In today's globalized world, such a journey represents an immersion into the character of a specific location, which may be limited in scope, but abundant in archival material. The journey through the cultural archives of material and symbolic textile-clothing memory aims at a deep penetration into the textile space, uncovering the barely visible yet present layers of ethnographic history (local, urban, industrial) as a kind of dispositif of the material, visual, and symbolic narratives of a 'soft' character. Her residency is part of the broader CIMO program, BoSA - Briefing on Soft Arts, which questions, explores, and creatively reflects on the less visible niches of the cultural habitus surrounding the local textile and clothing memory. The artist engaged with the rich cultural material through the lens of a traveler-researcher, which, during the creative process, opened up a wide range of new perspectives, which were then presented in the form of concurrent exhibitions at ReGalerija in Zabok and the Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb.
Exhibition openings:
1/10 at 7pm, Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb
3/10 at noon, reGalerija in Zabok
The exhibition is open until 12/10 (reGalerija) and 15/10 (Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb).
Curators of the BoSA project: Tonči Vladislavić, Lea Vene, CIMO – Center for Research of Fashion and Clothing
Curatorial associate, EMZ: Mareta Kurtin
Visual identity: Barbara Majnarić
Technical support, EMZ: Davor Filipčić
PR: Ivana Lušić i CIMO
Project supported by: Kunstverein Aughrim, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb, RGNC Group, Culture Moves Europe, Arts Council of Ireland VisualArts Bursary Award
Special thanks: Home Industries collective (Orla Callaghan, Barbara Callaghan, Caroline Dillon, Shane Malone-Murphy, Jo Perdue, Catherine Ryan, Sue Wardell)
