Unraveled from Yarn: Global Narratives in Textiles

Istanbul Modern brings together works by 25 international artists who use textile materials as a means of artistic expression in its new exhibition "Unravelled from Thread: Global Narratives in Textiles." The exhibition features objects, paintings, installations, archival materials and videos. The exhibition runs until 7 July 2019. "Unravelled from Thread: Global Narratives in Textiles," realised in cooperation with Germany's established arts institution Institute for Foreign Relations (ifa, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) and with contributions from Goethe-Institut Istanbul, opens to audiences. The exhibition presents over 50 works by 25 artists from around the world and Turkey who create aesthetic and cultural narratives using textile materials. Beginning in Dresden, Germany, then travelling to Kuwait and now to Istanbul, "Unravelled from Thread" creates new connections between themes as it is redesigned with each institution's curator and new artists are added. Realised under the curatorship of Susanne Weiß and Inka Gressel at the invitation of ifa, and Öykü Özsoy from Istanbul Modern, the exhibition examines the diversity of textile material as a means of expression and questions its historical, cultural and social meanings.

The exhibition hosts works by Belkıs Balpınar, Ulla von Brandenburg, Hussein Chalayan, Burhan Doğançay, Noa Eshkol, Andreas Exner, Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, Uli Fischer, Şakir Gökçebağ, Zille Homma Hamid, Heide Hinrichs, Olaf Holzapfel, Gözde İlkin, Christa Jeitner, Elisa van Joolen & Vincent Vulsma, Gülsün Karamustafa,

Servet Koçyiğit, Eva Meyer & Eran Schaerf, Karen Michelsen Castañón, İrfan Önürmen, Judith Raum, Sabire Susuz and Franz Erhard Walther from different geographies. "Unravelled from Thread" brings together many different narratives, from the quipu tradition of peoples living in the Andes Mountains in South America to the weaving techniques of Argentina's Wichi community, from Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu's story of reviving and bringing back to life the fading indigo-printing tradition to Burhan Doğançay's wall carpets realised in Aubusson carpet-weaving workshops.

The exhibition features a major installation documenting Bauhaus, which created new movements in architecture, design and art in the twentieth century and is the focus of exhibitions worldwide this year on the occasion of its 100th anniversary, with particular attention to its textile workshops.

"Unravelled from Thread," which references the Applied Fine Arts School opened in 1957 as Turkey's response to Bauhaus, also presents for the first time a selection from the archive of over 1,000 slides by Harald Schmidt, a teacher among those who came from Germany and taught for approximately 40 years. One of the special areas in the exhibition is dedicated to Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, one of the first artists to create a synthesis between painting and embroidery, weaving and indigo-printing traditions in Turkey. A selection of indigo prints produced by the versatile artist is featured in the exhibition, while some of the indigo-printing blocks he produced are presented to audiences for the first time in "Unravelled from Thread." Photographs taken by photographer Ziya Tacir of the space designed by architect Turgut Cansever in 1958, which Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu used as a home and studio with his artist wife Eren Eyüboğlu until his death in 1975, constitute one of the special areas featured in the exhibition. Unravelled from Thread: Global Narratives in Textiles 22 February – 7 July 2019 Curators: Susanne Weiß, Inka Gressel (ifa, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen); Öykü Özsoy (Istanbul Modern) Curatorial Team: Ümit Mesci, Deniz Pehlivaner