Artapestry2, European Tapestry Forum

22nd january - 30th may 2010

the Jean Lurçat/Contemporary Tapestry Museum

The Jean Lurçat / Contemporary tapestry Museum is pleased to announce the opening of the second international juried tapestry exhibition, ARTAPESTRY2, led by European the Tapestry Forum and featuring 44 contemporary tapestries.

A panel of five tapestry artists and experts met in Copenhagen in February 2008 to make the selections from a total of 186 submissions by 88 artists from 18 European countries. The jury was impressed by the standard and the diversity of visual content in evidence in the works, according to juror Fiona Mathison. “In our selection we wanted to demonstrate and to encourage that variety, the passion, the humour, even the craziness, and always the integrity of that combination of concept and craftsmanship that makes wonderful art in the medium of tapestry,” she added.

The jury consisted of art historian Edit András (Hungary);  tapestry artists Wlodzimierz  Cygan (Poland), Annika Ekdahl (Sweden) and Fiona Mathison (UK/Scotland); and Les Gobelins administrator Bernard Schotter (France).

“I think we all enjoyed and were enriched by our experience of selecting the work,” Mathison said, though the selection process was not easy. ”I think we were quite a dedicated bunch and worked hard to get it right.” Some of the top tapestry weavers from across Europe again entered their work.

European Tapestry Forum which organised ARTAPESTRY2 is artist-led. Founded by tapestry weavers after a tapestry seminar in Denmark in 2000, ETF is run by a Steering Committee of tapestry artists from several European countries.

ETF defines tapestry as warp-faced works woven with discontinuous wefts. This constitutes a fairly strict focus on traditional tapestry, but leaves room open for experiments with materials. The wide range of styles and materials seen in both the submissions and the final selections highlights the variety of exciting work being made in this medium today, both the jurors and the steering committee agree.

33 tapestry artists from 14 countries are taking part in this travelling exhibition, which opened in Aalborg in 2008 (Denmark) then in Bergen (Norway) and now goes on in Angers (France) and will finish in Lulea (Sweden).

Catalogue

English version : Artapestry 2/ European Tapestry Forum, texts from Anet Brusgaard, Nina Hobolth, Jorunn Haakestad, Françoise de Loisy, Eva Gun Jensen, Edit András, Thomas Cronenberg, Annika Ekdahl, publication European Tapestry Forum, 72 pages + booklet translated in french, 17 euros