“Textile art has regained the attention of artistic public in the past few years. Guerrilla knitting and production of authentic textile designers are present at numerous outdoor and indoor public spaces. Even though textile crafts are still understood as a domain where women traditionally prevail, a closer look into the past reveals quite a different story. Several textile professions such as carpet-making are mostly performed by men. Closer to glory and fortune we come across tailors and male fashion designers today. The presence of male textile artists in the contemporary art should thus not surprise us.
The conceptual outset of the exhibition of textile portraits of Jan Bejšovec and Anže Ermenc is based on their differences of experience and interests. The artists are of different nationality and age. On top of that, they have never met each other. At the time when Jan Bejšovec, from Berlin, first arrived in Ljubljana, Anže Ermenc was leaving Ljubljana for Manchester. Despite numerous differences they are related by their mutual interest in contemporary textile arts, so they have both accepted the invitation of the Alkatraz Gallery and joined their efforts in a way we had not expected.
The exhibition will be the scene of confrontation of different beliefs and views on textile arts, at the same time also a kind of a dialogue of the two artists of different experiences. The audience will hence have an opportunity to observe two very different styles of textile arts. While Ermenc employs his embroidery as a tool when dealing with uneasiness and the reflection of his own personal experiences with the aid of satire and in his wider (fashionable) scope questions social determination of the value and visibility of unfashionable and unpopular individuals, Bejšovec prefers to focus on portraying controversial personalities from the history and politics in hope to set up conflict situations in political, and not personal sense. The attempt of Bejšovec and Ermenc displays an unusual versatility of contemporary textile arts.” – galerijalkatraz.org
You are kindly invited to the opening of the The Other Self – A Textile Perspective On Exploring Identity And Belonging exhibition by Jan Bejšovec and Anže Ermenc on 29 November, Tuesday at 8 pm at Alkatraz Gallery.
On display: 29 November 2016 – 16 December 2016