Artist: IOANA CORDENEANU

Opening: Saturday, 4.7.2015, 7:00pm
The artist is present
Duration: 12.8.2015-16.10.2015

IA is how we call our traditional shirt. IA, or INIA, as IN is our word for ‘linen’ (“linon” in ancient Greek, “linum” in Latin). It was made of linen fabric, optimised cut (zero loss), enriched with fine and intricate embroidery.

For those who are initiated, the IA is like an opened book, which women ‘wrote’ with needle and thread, in order to pass down to their daughters, to future generations, vital information, keys to happiness, encoded into symbols. They used a visual language, universal communication tool throughout what was once the ‘Old Europe’, North Africa, Anatolia to Caucasian Mountains. For most of us today, these images are just ornaments. But long ago, they were clear ideas. These symbols were, in fact, the logo-s and the emoticons kept form prehistoric times. And what were those women expressing? What are their stories about?

They used symbols to talk about themselves, their vision of life, the way they understood the world and their place in it, about the meaning of life and recipe for fulfilment. And once you are initiated into this visual language, you are drawn into it and, through empathy, your soul will be able to read a Romanian blouse, will vibrate with textiles from primitive Berber rugs to sophisticated Caucasian carpets, kilim-s of the Balkans, towels of East Europe. And you can re-connect with almost forgotten values of humanity, you can be more aware, you can even change your perspective on life. The story of the signs starts with the story of the people and their journey out of Africa.

People never stopped communicating through images. Only that during the industrial revolution, they stopped being creators and became consumers. Messages are now printed on T-shirts, written in English, which is another universal language of our days. Many people became slaves of fashion, while others, less lucky, became slaves abused by the greedy fashion industry.

Images – printed on boards and banners will align along a fence, outdoors public spaces, an intriguing mix between ancient and modern. Our call to action and our slogans will invite people to play the game (treasure-hunting) and become part of the story. They will be able to finally meet the real objects, to be able to touch they, enjoy the texture, will be able to wear them and take photos to capture the moment and they will be able to put together all the pieces of the puzzle in the Exhibition hosted by the Gallery. They will also be invited to participate into workshops in order to learn how to make such a blouse, using traditional techniques and find out or remember the joy of creating art with your own hands. They will be able to buy a KIT with everything needed to make their own blouse (the right fabric, the threads and the needles and of course, the instructions). The models we will work with will be selected from Ing. Erich Kolbenheyer Album, as we want to honour his efforts.