As part of cooperation with the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, we have supported another artistic event with our fabrics, namely the exhibition “Everyday Forms of Resistance”. Spring and Jason fabrics were used to create the installation by Karolina Grzywnowicz “Every song knows its home”.
The exhibition Everyday Forms of Resistance tells viewers about the ways of dealing with situations like armed conflicts or natural disasters. Returning to nature, preparing meals together, telling stories – in a situation of constant danger, virtually every gesture can be a manifestation of strength that allows you to survive and preserve the meaning of life. In this project, resistance is understood as endurance, hospitality, small everyday gestures, and rituals: preparing meals, growing plants, singing songs, rebuilding destroyed houses.
The project, curated by Ika Sienkiewicz-Nowacka, is the result of many years of work by Palestinian artists – Jumana Emil Abboud, Noor Abed, Ahmad Alaqra, Mirna Bamieh, Forensic Architecture, Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti from the DAAR collective, Jumana Manny, Mahommad Saleh – as well as the outcome artistic residencies, travels, research and work with local communities undertaken in the last four years by female artists from Poland: Karolina Grzywnowicz, Joanna Rajkowska, Jaśmina Wójcik and Marta Wódz.
Everyday Forms of Resistance. Film: Marta Wódz
During her residency in Palestine, Karolina Grzywnowicz worked on her long-term project Every song knows its home. The artist collected songs sung by refugees during her journey as well as those that were written after its completion, creating a kind of saga, a story that preserves the memory of the injustice suffered. In this project, each heard melody, each hummed song may appear as part of a larger whole, as “a fragment of the tradition of the oppressed”.
Recording for the project Bedtime by Karolina Grzywnowicz, Palestine 2019. Photo: Kuba Rudziński
The installation "Every Song Knows Its Home" is an attempt to capture the community-building nature of these songs and their performance. In Ramallah, Karolina Grzywnowicz recorded songs sung by members of the Palestinian diaspora. They not only preserve erased and suppressed memories but also, in this particular geopolitical context, may become a form of resistance.
Karolina Grzywnowicz's installation in the Ujazdowski Castle takes the form of a symbolic tent, where you can listen for instance Syrian lullabies. Over 100 metres of navy-blue Spring Navy velour has created an intimate space, where you can sit on large cushions, made especially for this occasion by Miuki from Spring and Jason fabrics, and listen to refugee songs in contemplation.
These velour fabrics were selected for the project because of their haptic properties, softness associated with a sense of security, and sound absorption. In the case of Spring, the double width turned out to be an advantage, as it allowed sewing richly draped, 5-metre-high curtains closing the installation space.
Fabrics used:
Jason is a knitted velour decorative fabric with a subtle gloss. Its smoothness and elegance make the fabric suitable for universal use in modern- as well as classic-style interiors. It is available in 45 colours, from warm shades of beige and brown through both pastel and saturated shades of pink and azur, to grey, very fashionable colour this season. The fabric is in line with this year’s trend Virtual. High resistance to abrasion (70 000 Martindale cycles) is an additional asset of the fabric. Spring (280 cm) is similar to Jason.
Pleasant to the touch, Spring is a knitted velour fabric with a noble gloss. Its 2.8-metre width makes it a perfect solution for an impressive window decoration or exceptionally noble bedspread. The fabric is a universal base for use in interior design. It is available in a wide range of 32 colours: shades of commercial grey, violet, pink and also azure. Jason (140 cm) is similar to Spring. We suggest to use the lining when sewing window decorations.
More information about the exhibition:
https://u-jazdowski.pl/en/programme/exhibitions/codzienne-formy-oporu?tid=t_content