THE STITCH pROJECT - Hilde Hauan Johnsen
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the Stitch project by Hilde Hauan 6 A little less lonely by Frans Jacobi 10 New Year’s Eve 1990 by Lene Hansen 18 The Role of the Arts in a Time of Change by Ásthildur Jónsdóttir 22 Palestine’s Heritage: A Tool for Change & Cultural Exchange by Dr. Adel H. Yahya 34 5
the Stitch project presentation or lecture for by Hilde Hauan all the people embroidering around the table. People come to sit around the tablecloth and embroider together with us, they learn to spin wool and pick The Stitch Project (TSP) was plants for dyeing yarn. A lot of founded in 2012 by seven artists stories are told, a lot of good from Sweden, Iceland, Palestine, dialogues appear and sometimes Brazil and Norway. The project quietness while working together is also pleasant. gathering was at the Sami festi- val Riddu Riddu1 Troms, Northern Norway in July 2012, and we will have the last racially, ethnically, religiously, or event in July 2016, at the 25th challenge facing civil society today. years celebration of Riddu Riddu. We tend socially to avoid engaging This art project has three main with people unlike ourselves, and activities, which we invite every- modern politics encourages the one to join in on. We embroider politics of the tribe rather than of on a 10-meter long tablecloth, the city. In this thought-provoking we spin local wool and we dye book, Richard Sennett discusses why with plants from the area we visit. We also look into political be done about it. or cultural issues and invite Sennett contends that cooperation experts and artists to give a is a craft, and the foundations for 8
skillful cooperation lie in learning to industry and got a lot of wool to listen well and discuss rather than spin. We met local spinners and people can cooperate online, on weavers. They have a long street corners, in schools, at work, tradition of yarn spinning, using and in local politics. He traces the just the natural color from the evolution of cooperative rituals from medieval times to today, and in sheep and weaving very special situations as diverse as slave blankets, “Grene”, on the oldest communities, socialist groups in looms known (in Norwegian: Paris, and workers on Wall Street. oppstadvev)2. Divided into three parts, the book addresses the nature of cooperation, why it has become weak, and how it cultural festivals in Norway, we warns that we must learn the craft have been travelling to of cooperation if we are to make our and Gaza. In Palestine we met for the capacity for cooperation is artists, locals and Bedouins. embedded in human nature. The Bedouin women taught us Richard Sennett; Together: The to spin with their wool and in Rituals, Pleasures, and Politics of their tradition, we shared the Cooperation knowledge and joy of spinning. We learned about their lives and how they struggle to survive At Riddu Riddu in 2012 we with the Bedouin way of living in invited the founder of the the Middle East, surrounded by festival, Lene Hansen, to tell the heavy political issues. story of the festival, about the We met with artists in philosophy, the political issues Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron and cultural strength this fes- and Haifa. We spent a day with tival has brought to the Sami students at the Art Academy in people along the coast of Ramallah. They embsroidered Northern Norway. on the tablecloth and told about We visited the smallest wool their studies and how it is to live carding factory in Norway, on the West Bank, with the wall learned about a small-scale between the West Bank and 9
Jerusalem (and Israel), a city three weeks and created a space with great importance for the for discussions and Palestinian people. We met interest in the stitch project with a women group in Rantis, a both from colleagues and the small Palestine village public. A lot of people came surrounded by Israeli by to sit and embroider on the settlements. The women in cloth and talk with us. We had Rantis make their living of invited four Palestinian artists embroidery. They shared stories to show art works together with from their lifes with us. two from our own group, in addition to the 10-meter long tablecloth and spinning Art is and should continue to be the facilities. These are just a few examples of all the meetings, any commission or commissioner, exhibitions and performances and irrespective, in particular of any we have joined, been invited to and/or have created ourselves. It of power…even though place still has been many more. determines and is determined by - periences reality and designates new places and prospects for A stitch is a named thing and stitch- another history. ing is a named thing and stitching Denys Zacharapoulos 3 is an action, like speaking, through which the thing is brought into the space of encounter along the endless chain of manifestation of stitching, We have been to the RELATE whether verbal or material, denota- north symposium in Iceland with tive or connotative. presentations and an exhibition4. Victoria Mitchell 5 We were invited to join the International Theatre festival “Peripheral stories” in Dale, on 1 http://riddu.no/nb/om-festivalen 2 the west coast of Norway. In 3 Denys Zacharopoulos June 2013 we opened an 4 Relate North exhibition in ROM 8, the gallery 5 From “Dialog Stitching with Metonymy” by at Bergen Academy of Art and Victoria Mitchell Design. The exhibition lasted for 10
Alaa Albaba: Al Almari (painting on photo) 11
TSP- group Omaya Salman (1987) graduated from the International her MA-program in Toulouse. She is questioning the topic of terrorism in her artworks. Kiyoshi Yamamoto (1983) is born in Brazil and lives in Bergen. He works with huge paintings, where he shows and discuss the borderline of paintings, sculpture and textile. Marie Skeie (1980) lives and works in Bergen. She has lived most of her life abroad in Japan, Brazil and other countries. She speaks six languages and in her artwork she use languages and her international experience. Margrethe Brekke (1980) lives and work in Bergen. She works with spinning and art installations were textile is the main focus. Hildur Bjarnadottir (1971) Lives in Island, pt. she is working in Bergen as a fellow at the Norwegian Artistic Research program, lasting 3 years. She works mainly with plant dying in textile expressions and water colours. Hilde Hauan Johnsen (1953) lives in Tromsø and commute to optics and with sound installations in traditional textile techniques like weaving and sprang. Britta Marakatt Labba (1951) lives in Øvre Sopparo in the North of Sweden she is a textile artist and use embroidery as her main expression in her art works. She embroider the life and history of the Sami people. 12
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1990 1990 by Lene Hansen motive to engage and very few with organizational experience gathered to discuss the fate of New Year’s Eve 1990. Someone’s Why this focus on the Sami, knocking at my door in someone asks, while others Manndalen. A small village in a willingly explain. Words like rebellion, awareness, north in Norway. sustainable development, lack Two young men smile brilliantly of history, Norwegianization, at me and say enthusiastical- coastal Sami culture and identity ly: “Do you want to save the are swirling in the air. world with us?”. “Of course,” The mood rises: “We must rock I replied, taken aback but also curious about how it would go away. “We are going to start a Sami youth association here in several hours of questions and answers, visions, dreams and Three hours later we meet at ideas about what had been and the inaugural meeting of what what was to become. We should will be Gáivuona Sáminuorat / engage in politics, culture and the environment, under a Sami people between 19 and 25 years umbrella. We should take the 14
coastal sami out of the two axes. On the one hand it’s doghouse. Convey its past; give it a new content and thus a new traditions and ideas of the future. Shame would become original culture. On the other pride. Thus began, what for side the population wants many of us was, the adventure modernization and of the Riddu Riddu festival. development. This is often a Riddu Riddu, “storm on the coast” in Norwegian, is an are no forms of expression and international indigenous tradition that hold both cultural festival held every summer in orientations. Riddu Riddu has, the small village Manndalen. The however, been such a place. festival has its origins in a A place that encourages norwegianised coastal Sami openness and dialogue about area, where a postcolonial language, culture and identity. awareness and A place where ambiguity and self-understanding is prominent. clarity can go hand in hand. A The village is situated, in many place where participants can get contexts, far out in the to know themselves and others, periphery, a great distance from with art as a tool. both the Sami and Norwegian Through 24 years, the festival center. Sami culture and has evolved from being a small self-understanding has for years local barbecue to become a been a privat matter and well global meeting place for hidden. It was something that indigenous peoples and should not be visible, although minorities worldwide. The road language and customs still lived there was steep and twisting, locally among the oldest. The but the years have shown that festival’s development has come dialogue is possible - as long as about through openness to someone will tell and someone Sami, Norwegian and will listen. Such is also The Stich international indigenous culture. Project. Slowly we are sewing This provoked many and had a stitches together so that the picture is complete. Not perfect, years. but a little richer, a little more Sami culture has evolved along complete and utter to live with. 15
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Plant dying workshop at Riddu Riddu 17
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The stitch project spent a day embroidering with the Women association in Rantis, Palestine. 19
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Performance at The international theatre festival in Dale 21
The Stitch Project with workshop in cooperation with Windows from Gaza for contemporary art 22
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Performance during the exhibition at Al Mamal Lab, Jerusalem 27
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Public intervention by Omaya Salman at Sommer Melbu, festival for art and philosophy. 30
A little less lonely to talk and where to listen? by Frans Jacobi Of course we can go online and meet there. Of course we can Step step, step your heart up. talk at Skype – or at Facebook, Step step, stitch the holes up. at Twitter or at Instagram. All these possibilities exist and for I am sitting on a train, travelling most of us there are accessible. through a norwegian landscape. What more do we need? Why is The train is going in and out of this not enough? tunnels, in and out of the earth, like a needle going in and out of In an interview the italian fabric. The landscape is a piece thinker Franco ’Bifo’ Berardi of fabric. The train is a needle talks about two modes of and my journey is spinning a communication between oneself long and fragile thread behind and the other - the connective me. and the conjuctive: We are all lost. Deplaced. Conjunction is any kind of Moving from here to there. relation between linguistic Limited by walls and borders. beings – human beings as linguistic creators; relations Lonely souls on each our long that don’t have any kind of and winding road in various and predetermined, prestructured form, except the body sensitive, sensible format of language. A Step step, step your heart up. conjunctive Step step, stitch the holes up. relation is a relation between round bodies that don’t have a How to connect? How to point of perfect interaction. re-establish meaningfull dialogues? How to ground ourselves? Or rather: Where? Connection means the exchange Where to meet? Where to look of messages and the production each other in the eyes? Where to of meaning in a media or hear each others voices? Where 31
have pre-formatted machines. dont understand. I have to hear Segments of interaction. your voice. Conjunctive com- munication is you and me. Here. Connective communication is Sharing space and time. Now. pre-designed. It takes place in pre-designed formats and only I'm all lost in the supermarket, I works if we accepts the can no longer shop happily conditions of these pre-designs. I came in here for the special In social media we are forging And it's not here, it disappear pre-designs of corporate I'm all lost in the supermarket, I globalism. We are shaping our can no longer shop happily identities anew. We are coming together, not as one, but The Stitch Project is an attempt as similar. We are shaping up, we at a place to meet. It crosses mainstreaming ourselves. We borders and cultures. It is mak- are part of a whole, but only as ing us meet. Even though we are similar. seperated - seperated by geogra- phy, seperated by politics, seper- Step step, step your heart up. ated by borders - we can meet. Step step, stitch the holes up. Our round imperfect bodies can meet and we can talk. We can Conjunctive communication is eat and we can work together. not pre-designed. Its not corporate. Conjunctive Embroidery, weaving, spinning. communication is grounded in Extracts of plants becoming our bodies. In the imperfection color. Local plants, local col- ors. Food. Cooking. Local food. singular bodies. It is grounded in Exotic food. These are all simple where we are. Physical. Its limit- tools. Tools are meant to pro- ed by where we are. Its between duce. A result, a production, an you and me, but we have to item. But here the tools are used meet to make it work. I have to see your face. I have understand to make us meet. By using the your body language to make up tools we are showing each other for the parts of your language I who we are. Where we come 32
from. What we like. running from the north of Norway to the Middle East is a And we talk. And we tell. Stories metaphor for the long journey from here. Stories from there. A that the project has undertak- lot of stories. en, for the long narrative that we have woven together. In the These tools are traditional. They fabric each of us has stitched our stem from a time when things small stories, our images and were connected. The hand was symbols and these fragments connected to the body. Work of narrative, looks like a large was a bodily action. Work was collective story. It is not a story, connected to materials and it doesn’t add up – but it doesn’t materials sprung directly from matter. What matters is that its the surroundings. From the a metaphor for the possibilty of place we were living. Food was such a story. an expression of our dialogue with the place we were living. The thread doesn’t connect the We were rooted. We were sta- lost nation of the Sami with the ble identities, working with our lost nation of the Palestine. But hands. Working with materials it suggest that in spite of all and things that expressed our the borders and deplacements belonging. we can meet. In physical, direct conversation. In conjunction. Now we are moving. Moving The thread makes this possible around. Not belonging, but on a metaphorical level, and the longing. Longing for the past. Longing for home. Longing for Project People makes it possi- each other. Longing for ours- bel in the real world. If only for leves. a short while we met and our meeting is recorded, memorized Step step, step your heart up. as stitch. The hole is stitched up. Step step, stitch the holes up. They leave again, and we are left. The Stitch Project tools are also And we are left: A little less metaphors. Metaphors for our lonely. meeting. The long spun thread 33
The stitch project visited Bedouin camp at the desert close to Hebron. We shared knowledge about wool and spinning with the women. 34
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The Stitch Project with workshop in cooperation with Windows from Gaza for contemporary art 36
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antis, Palestine. contemporary art red knowledge about wool and spinning with the women. contemporary art The Stitch Project with workshop in cooperation with Windows hy from Gaza for contemporary art 38
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40 Spinning workshop at Sommer Melbu
Artwork by Kiyoshi Yamamoto at Sommer Melbu, festival for art and philosophy 41
The Stitch Project in Iceland able Arts and Design (ASAD). fall 2013: The Role of the The fundamental aim for the Arts in a Time of Change exhibition, and the seminar that followed it, was to create Ásthildur Jónsdóttir assistant a platform for safeguard of the professor at the Iceland Academy cultural diversity in the North of the Arts and to support the local social and environmental development of local communities through examining the potential means In late fall 2013 the Stitch Proj- of art and art education for ect participated in the exhibition changing values. ‘Relate North’ in Iceland. This This exhibition is about the was the second exhibit of the visitors and for them. It shows University of the Arctic’s the- that the world is big and every- matic network Arctic Sustain- one should have a place in it. As 42
you walk through the exhibit stated: and read the artist statements, The challenges arise from values you see works that touch upon that have created unsustainable ecological, environmental and societies... We need a shared philosophical themes connected commitment to education that to sustainability. The works deal empowers people for change. with who we are, the world that Such education should be of a surrounds us and how we act. quality that provides the values, (Jónsdóttir, 2013b) knowledge, skills and compe- The exhibition aimed to help tencies for sustainable living and guests to deepen their under- participation in society. standing of its topic. It raised These challenges call for all of the question of what we can do us to rethink our value frame- work and incorporate new complex ecology and well-being. approaches to what we consider In these critical times the move a good life. The exhibition and towards the goal of sustainabili- the collaboration in the ASAD ty requires fundamental changes network is part of that process. in human attitudes and activity. We all need to strive to create It can be seen as the struggle change and work towards a for a balance between the good future focusing on well-being in life and the integrity of nature, balance with the earth’s carrying resulting in human actions often capacity. and crossing the earth’s environ- The stitch project and sustain- mental limits as a result of an ability overemphasis on the good life Artists, whichever media they (Háskóli Íslands, 2012; Hattingh, use, create works that are in n.d.; Jónsdóttir, 2013a; Samp- close harmony with their so- ford, 2010). “Increasingly, people believe that the integrity of the the present (Barrett, 2011). It earth itself is under threat – a belief that is fuelled by disturb- connection between artists and ing images and reports from the content of their work and outer space” (Tuan, 2004,p. 15). ask how one can gain knowledge The Bonn declaration (2009) about important issues relat- 43
ed to sustainability by viewing - works of art. One could do it in ries, knowledge and inspiration. three ways: The fact that this cloth had Promoting ecological use of travelled all the way from Gaza, materials. Tromsø, Jerusalem, Maintaining and developing ex- Bergen, Ramallah, Dale, Rantis, isting technology and knowledge of issues in visual arts. yet another dimension. There Working with content that in- is rich potential for interesting creases understanding of issues dialogues among the partici- relating to sustainable develop- pants when they participate in ment (Jónsdóttir 2011). traditions, political- social- and One can connect the Stitch cultural issues that connect us Project to all of those means. It all as world citizens. This ap- is possible to connect the project proach is in line with the key to all those factors. issues of sustainability: we need 1. The group responsible for that to learn to maintain the good set up the project in Iceland set life without diminishing the up a workshop station where quality of life for others, and they made thread from Icelan- depleting natural resources. We dic wool. During the exhibition must protect these resources for opening the visitors could ob- our own and future generations serve how rock and cassettes are (UN documents, n.d.). used to create a thread. 2. The Sustainability calls for integrat- Nordic countries have an exten- ed systemic thinking highlight- sive textile tradition. The work ing the understanding that in has the potential to strengthen sustainability we are all working the knowledge of stitch work by within a web of interdependent sharing knowledge with others. ecological and social systems 3. Since textile is a social meta- (Sterling, 2004; McKenzie, phor, the setting in the Nordic 2008). It can dissolve barriers house with the tablecloth laid - out on an eight-meter long ry and praxis, as well as between table with chairs all around it, all disciplines. Some of the opens the door for dialogue. The works exhibited at the Nordic project is intended as a meeting house had participation ele- 44
ments, which may be associated project. The participants became with this important point. very active in the round table Participation has become more discussion and mentioned how - working together opened up the temporary art. This phenome- dialogue. non goes by many names such as: participative art, collabora- One of art teacher who visited - the exhibition highlighted the importance of how the possibil- process art. Some works of art like the ‘Stitch project’ involve of all ages join in. This teacher the community. They tend to hoped to develop a project in the deal with social issues that are Icelandic countryside inspired by closely related to the values that this idea. form the basis of sustainability. Everyone agreed to the need to The Stitch Project is able to show in one piece a very complex is- learn from and understand each sue. Community-based art is any other. Examples of disrupted art created with the purpose of and vested interests were men- engaging a particular communi- tioned, and the importance of ty into a larger dialogue with the creating circumstances that al- purpose of generating positive lowed more space for the imag- change. ination to foster more sustain- able ways of living. One week after the exhibition The Stitch Project and educa- opened I organized a seminar tional potentials about sustainability in the When teaching in a school one Nordic house, for Icelandic art could say that an art-class is a teachers. Around sixty teachers community of people. The same participated. Seven practicing can be said of people who hap- art teachers gave presentations pen to live together in the same about their approach to educa- neighbourhood, same city, same tion for sustainability. After the presentation the whole group families who have their own ide- came into the exhibition space ologies, tastes and values even and gathered around the stitch though Iceland is fairly mono 45
cultural. Participating with the can play a fundamental role for group in an exhibition like this citizens in understanding their own local settings. The table- my role to discover how those cloth creates opportunities for political expression, community productive dialogue and shared cultural The Stitch Project provides experiences. It has the capacity possibilities for collaboration when working alone or together. empathy, create dialogue and People had the opportunity to foster new ideas and relation- come together and take part in creating the cloth. That helps democratic way of expressing, participants to develop their sharing and shaping values. social capital by cooperating, shared ideas and values. But just as importantly, the work is very individual. You could come alone to the exhibition space and work on the cloth. Even though the work is a part of a collaborative process people could participate in the work in solitude. That way the work focuses on the impor- tance of each person has. This could work as a metaphor for looking at the impact we have as humans both on the ecosystem and on a society’s culture. The Stitch Project can be seen as a metaphor for the importance of human unity in modern exis- tence. It can be argued that a cultural project like the Stitch Project is not simply a luxury but that it 46
References: Barret, T. (2011). The importance of teaching interpretation, FATE in Review, 32, 3- 11. The Bonn declaration, world conference on education for sus- tainable development, (2009). Bonn, Germany. From: http:// www.esd-world-conference2009.org/en/ whatsnew/news-detail/ item/%20bonn-declaration-adopted.html Iceland. Sustainability and environment policy]. Háskóli Íslands. Hattingh, J. (n.d.). Faultlines in the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development. From: http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/G02464. pdf in EfS]. Netla. From: http://netla.hi.is/arslok-2011 Jónsdóttir, Á. (2013a). Art and place-based education for the under- standing of sustainability. In press, Education in the North. Jónsdóttir, Á. (2013). Relate North, Exhibition catalogue. Iceland Academy of the Arts and the ASAD network. McKenzie, M. (2008) The places of pedagogy: or, what we can do with culture through intersubjective experiences, Environmental Education Research , 14, 3, 361-373. Sampford, C. (2010). Re-conceiving the good life: the key to sustain- able globalization. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 45(1), 13-24. From: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/42574/ Tuan, Y. F. (2004). Place, art, and self. Chicago, IL: University of Vir- ginia Press, Santa Fe, NM & Columbia College. UNESCO. (nd). Education for sustainable development. From: http:// www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-internation- al-agenda/education-for-sustainable-development 47
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Performance at Relate North exhibition at Nordic House, Reykjavik 53
"Palestine Heritage: Tool for openness to, and tolerance of for- Cultural Exchange" - estine, or the Holy Land, as many By: Dr. Adel H. Yahya. call it, is in fact the birth place of tourism in the form of pilgrimage. Director of the Palestinian As- During the fourth century AD peo- ple started coming to the country (PACE) as pilgrims to visit the Christian Holy places such as the birth place of Jesus (Bethlehem) and his burial site (Jerusalem), and to walk in the footsteps of the Holy Family. This role was further illustrated with of Moslem pilgrims to Jerusalem from the eighth century on. Pales- tine is also the cradle of civilisation, and the land where the three great The Heritage of Palestine is for the monotheistic religions of mankind; most part a world heritage even if Islam, Christianity and Judaism most of its world renowned histor- blossomed. The Palestinians have ical, religious and archaeological always had very high expectations sites are not recognized as such, from this human activity (tour- neglected and abandoned as a ism). Most of them view it as an result of the current political situa- important human activity that tion. The country has a long tradi- - tion as a tourist destination, and its people have a long tradition of 54
to other cultures and various ways have been denied the right to pres- of life. The importance of cultural ent themselves to the world and exchange may be hard to quantify to promote their own country and but it broadens the perspectives heritage. Their image of the coun- of visitors and locals alike, and for try and its indigenous people has, most Palestinians it betters lives. in fact, been stained by decades of Interrupting tourism for one reason or another can have a devastating especially since the establishment impact on many in the country and of the state of Israel in 1948, and the country as a whole. more particularly since the occupa- Palestine is a narrow bridge of land tion of the West Bank and Gaza in between two massive continents; 1967. Due to the decline of the tour- Africa and Asia. This location has ism sector world famous historical, dominated the country's history religious and environmental tourist from time immemorial. People attractions in the Palestinian areas from east and west, south and lack the sort of facilities one would north have moved back and forth across the country. This small and the world. World renown sites piece of land has been involved in which would normally qualify as almost every important event in world heritage sites lack the neces- the region's history, and the world sary regulations and laws to pro- tect and to promote them locally many civilisations and cultures, and internationally. Aside from from Pharonic Egypt down to the the cities of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Moslem and Christian Arabs and and to a lesser extent, the city of the Israeli Jews of today. The Baby- Jericho, all other Palestinian cities lonians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and localities in the West Bank and and Romans have all had an impact the Gaza Strip are rarely visited by foreign tourists. Tourists refrain today’s Palestine. Ruins of Canaan- from visiting the Palestinian areas ite and Roman temples, Byzantine due to concerns about safety, but monasteries and churches, and also as a result of ignorance of the Moslem mosques and minarets potentials of the country. stand witness to this rich heritage. Most, if not all Palestinians are Regrettably, Palestine’s turbulent eager, however, to promote the recent past has had a detrimental, image of their country as a signif- if not fatal impact on the country’s icant tourist destination. Despite - ishing tourist industry. Palestinians succeeded in doing so after the 55
establishment of the Palestinian determined from the type of dress Authority in 1996, but this was only "thoub" she wares. That depends a short lived episode which came to usually on the type of cloth, colors an abrupt end upon the breakout of of cloth and threads, the way the al-Aqsa Intifada in Oct. 2000. Palestinian Embroidery: One form or lack thereof .. etc. of Palestinian Culture For hun- Although we have no clear evidence dreds, if not thousands of years, from ancient Palestine, patterns the people of Palestinians have had of traditional Palestinian women a long standing tradition in pro- dresses bear strong resemblance ducing a wide range of handicrafts. Many of those continued into the shown in ancient Egyptian and present day as a result of tourism - and international interest in the - country. Palestinian handicrafts that "Palestinian clothing from the 19th. - 20th. centuries shows traces of similar styles of clothing and above all embroidery which represented in eastern art 3,000 is a wide spread Palestinian wom- years ago". Others like Ms. Hanan en artistic tradition. Palestinian Munayyer, collector and researcher embroidery is very beautiful and of of Palestinian clothing sees resem- very high quality. Diverse motifs are blance between modern Palestinian to be found in Palestinian embroi- costumes and that of the Canaan- dery and costume due to Palestine's ites (1500 BC). Traditional motifs long history and position on the derived mainly from basic geomet- international trade routes which triangles as well as local plants, The tradition of embroidering in locally-distinctive styles was at its usually gets the largest and most height during the Ottoman rule of beautiful blocks of embroidery, Palestine. Foreign travelers to Pal- probably to direct the attention to estine in the 19th. and early 20th. the important chest area. centuries often referred to the rich Longstanding traditions of embroi- variety of costumes among Pales- dery are to be found today in the tinian women. mountainous region of Palestine, Until recently, a woman's econom- especially the Jerusalem, Ramallah, ic status, her marital status, and and Bethlehem areas, as well as up- the area she comes from could be per and lower Galilee, and the Ne- 56
gev. There is little embroidery in the hangings began to appear in the costal area from Haifa in the north - camps of the West Bank. Individual village styles were lost and replaced This is probably due to the fact that by a distinct Palestinian style. embroidery is coupled with the lack Women would normally begin em- work shortages and unemploy- broidering as young girls at the age ment, especially amongst women. of seven. The skill is usually passed The areas described above with no to them from their mothers and tradition in embroidery are usually grandmothers. Before the 20th. highly productive agricultural areas, century, most young girls didn't and thus relatively richer than the attend school, and thus spent much mountain region in the centre, and of their time preparing their clothes the desert in the south. and especially their costumes for ceremonial purposes, particularly were introduced to Palestinian em- their wedding dresses. Items pro- broidery by European pattern books duced included besides the embroi- dered dresses, veils, headdresses, promoted the appearance of curvi- undergarments, kerchiefs, belts and even footwear. leaf arrangements, and introduced the paired bird motif which became very popular in central Palestinian regions. The purpose of embroi- dery has changed greatly in recent decades. Political unrest in the region has pushed many women into the position of providers for their families. Some women are widowed, while others have hus- because of the separation wall and the many restrictions on movement in the area. Many women who are skilled embroiderers began to work to embroider for the market despite the many chalenges. New embroidery styles such as scarves (shawls), women purses, and wall 57
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Collecting Xanthoria parietina at the sea side in Melbu for plant dying 59
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Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. 61
This publication in supported by: 62
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