What is actually hidden within the museums' textile collections? Behind closed doors and sealed archive boxes lie thousands of works and objects that carry stories of people's lives, labour, identities, and dreams. Many of these textile treasures remain unexplored. Some are even unknown to the museums themselves.
In a packed hall at Konstfack on 11 November, all aspects of the research environment Textile Heritage were introduced under the leadership of the research director, Professor Maja Gunn.
Within Textile Heritage, artistic research is used as a method. By approaching textiles not only as historical artefacts, but also as aesthetic, bodily, and identity-shaping expressions, new perspectives on heritage, culture, and society are opened up.
The research environment brings together expertise from many different fields and is developed in close dialogue with museums and their collections. Here, researchers and artists explore museum holdings in order to understand, challenge, and comment on our textile cultural heritage.
The research environment Textile Heritage is part of the research platform Heritage, Culture, Community, that explores identity and society through research and artistic practices: Heritage, Culture, Community
After the initial overview of the various aspects, the research environment's advisory group presented their perspectives and experiences of working with textile heritage in their respective fields.
Participants included Maja Gunn (Professor, Konstfack), Andrea Peach (Professor, Konstfack), Frida Hållander (Researcher, Konstfack), Gunvor Guttorm (Professor, Sámi University of Applied Sciences), Louise Wallenberg (Professor, Stockholm University), Jonatan Habib Engqvist (Curator), Marcia Harvey Isaksson (Artist and Director of Southnord), Elsa Chartin (Senior Lecturer, Konstfack), Åsa Pärson (Lecturer, Konstfack), Sara Elggren (Artist, Nationalmuseum) and Lisa Englund (Artist, Nationalmuseum).
From the advisory group, the following participated Christopher Breward (Director, National Museums Scotland), Mizuki Takahashi (Director, Centre for Heritage, Arts & Textile, Hong Kong), Christine Checinska (Senior Curator, V&A), Agustin Perez Rubio (Curator), Karin Stenson (Ministry of Culture, Sweden) and Cynthia Chavez Lamar (Director, National Museum of the American Indian).