EVENTS

THE ACT OF EMBROIDERING. Series of lectures and workshop. May-June 2024

First volume (link)  April 2023.

Second volume. May June 2024

The act of embroidery as a poetic act of creation, which reverberates like an atavistic feat, to embroider a fabric. A feat which in the western world undergoes two decisive moments of inflexion: during the Renaissance, when humanistic thought reconfigures the whole hierarchy of the plastic arts, relegating all those which were not intellectual arts (architecture, sculpture, painting) to mere slavish and technical activities, mechanical arts or crafts. Apart from this, the painful process of industrialization which began in the 18th century in Scotland with wool, and which would turn the social configuration of the western world upside-down, dismantling household economy and, with it, those embroiderers who had preserved the Art of Embroidery in a chrysalis

Friday, 24th May, 7.0pm. "'With my needle I wrought' : 18th-19th Century British and American embroidery". Isabella Rosner, curator of the Royal School of Needlework, London.                             

An online lecture (Zoom) to be recorded in English at the Fons d'Art. It will be possible to attend in person at the Fons or be an on-line guest. Requests should be made to info@teresavallmajo.com or through the tab INSCRIPCIÓ The lecture will be subtitled and accessible on our website.

Isabella Michelle Sterman Rosner holds a degree in Fine Arts and History of Art from Columbia University, New York, and a further Master´s degree with merit in the History of Art from  Newnham College, Cambridge University, England. Since 2019 she has been engaged on a pre-doctoral programme at King's College, London, concentrating on women´s textile arts in 17th and 18th century America. An impressive journey in specialization which has led her to work in the archives of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, the Quaker Tapestry Museum, Kendal (England), the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York and the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge, among others. Apart from managing and creating the "Sew What"podcast with 30.000 visits so far, in 2023 she was nominated as a BBC New Generation Thinker for popularizing the art of embroidery among the British public. Among her many publications in specialized journals, she was a member of the consultative team for the essential work "Marking Time: Objects, People and Their Lives 1500-1800",Yale University Press. 

Friday 31st May, 7.0pm  "Rébé, the history of a forgotten embroiderer". Nadia Albertini, Haute-coutire and Prêt-à-porter embroiderer, embroiderer art historian, París.                                                                                               

Live Talk.                                                                               

Nadia Alberltini, a Franco-Mexican embroiderer and designer living in Paris. Her interest in the act of embroidery began in Mexico City when she was eight years of age, when her abuelita taught  her the first, elementary stitches. She became a professional at the École Duperré in Paris and has worked for Chloé, Chanel, Balmain, Schiaparelli, Marc Jacobs and Dries van Noten, among others.She has already published two books, the first in 2021about the Rébé firm and the second in 2023 about Kitmir or Mademoiselle Chanel`s Russian embroidery (https://elpais.com/smoda/placeres/2024-04-09/crecio-en-la-corte-del-zar-y-creo-un-imperio-vendiendo-bordados-a-chanel-la-apasionante-historia-de-maria-pavlovna.html).  In these books she combines the atmosphere of domesticity of her embroiderer grandmother and the professional world of Haute Couture and Prêt-à-porter which has helped so greatly to preserve Textile Crafts. 

Saturday 1st June, technical sessions with Nadia Albertini.

Please join beforehand via info@teresavallmajo.com  or the INSCRIPCIÓ tab                                                                                        

11am to 1.0pm. "Haute couture design workshop", where,  working from drawings originating from the House of Rébé, our instructor Nadia will be teaching us all about the process of creation right from the source of inspiration as far as the design set down on paper, choice of materials and colours and lastly the placing on some part of the garment.  This workshop requires basic notions of embroidery with a fee of 25€ per person                                                                                                                          

6.0pm to 8.0pm. "Embellishing the everyday or how to embroider your alpargatas". In collaboration with Castañer. In direct collaboration with one of our most international firms, the House of Castañer, we shall be learning how to personalize our rope-soled sandals with simple embroidery which is within everyone´s reach. No fee

Friday 7th June, 7.0pm. "Learned embroidery and its technical resources". Sílvia Saladrigas Cheng, documentation Museu Tèxtil de Terrassa.

Live talk

Holding a degree in the History of Art (Barcelona University, 1998) a Master's degree in Medieval European Identity (University of Lerida, 2017) and a postgraduate qualification in Textile Design from the Escola Universitària d’Enginyeria Tècnica Industrial, Terrassa (1989). A weaver by vocation and a  documentalist by training, she has studied the analysis of fibres in historic textiles at the Centre International d'Etudes des Textiles Anciens (1991) and followed studies on weaving on pre-Jacquard looms at the Danish Weaving Centre (1990). Her main field of interest is research into medieval textile techniques and hand-looms. On a wider scale she also works on the study of textiles understood as historical documents, transmitters of culture and knowledge and as a means of social expression. She has given classes and talks to different schools, congresses and workshops and has been working at the   Museu Tèxtil, Terrassa as a documentalist since 1996

Friday 14th June, 19h. "The Ancient History of embroidery. From art to craftmanship". Rosa M.Martín Ros, curator Museu del Disseny HUB, Barcelona.

Live talk

Holding a degree in History of Art from the University of Barcelona and specializing in the study of textiles and clothing, she has been a scientific assessor during various operations concerned with the recuperation and restoration of the medieval Catalan textile heritage, such as fabrics from the tomb of  Ramon Berenguer II at Cap d'Estopes, the Cope of Sant Eudald, el Tern de Sant Valeri or the Chasuble of Sant Vicenç at the 'Abegg-Stiftung of Riggisberg, Berne. Among other books, she has published “Clothing as a social fact” (Ajuntament de Barcelona) or "The embroidered altar-cloths of the Cathedral Museum, Girona." (Catedral de Girona). She has worked with specialized journals such as the Bulletin du Centre International d'Étude des Textiles Anciens, Techniques et Cultures, Tribuna d'Arqueologia or Lambard. She has studied Medieval Art and curated exhibitions such as "Cristóbal Balenciaga", "Twenty-five years of the School of Lace-makers" or "Fastes de la Couronne d'Aragon”. “Dialogue entre les broderies et les tissus du Musée des Tissus de Lyon et du Musée episcopal de Vic" together with Marie-Anne Privat-Savigny and Marie Hélène Guelton at the Textile Museum, Lyon. She is a member of the International Centre for the Study of Ancient Textiles (CIETA) , of the Costume Committee within the International Museum Council (ICOM) and on the committee of  Amics de l'Art Romànic, under the auspices of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans.

Friday 21st June. Online."Paradíse, an embroidery with a child". Núria Malé embroiderer and Mireia Cuenca art historian.

documentary

Núria Malé trained in Fashion at the BAU school, holding a Master´s degree in footwear and accessories from Florence. She discovered embroidery in Calcutta and spent a period of training in West Bengal under master of tak tak (crochet work combined with beads). She furthered her studies in Luneville, birthplace of Haute Couture embroidery, and was thus able to work on costume embellishment for Teresa Helbig. Núria works from historical archives and occasionally travels to Paris to update her documentation, fleeing ephemeral fashion trends and drawing close to the widest and most permanent concept of artistic creation.

"This  piece of embroidery was born in autumn 2022, when I was enraptured before a representation of the Lamb of God, a lamb which is presented as a sacrifice to replace Isaac, as a prefiguration of the sacrifice of the Son of God and a metaphor of the same in Christian iconography. I thought straight away of one of the most striking images of our recent history, the child Alan Kurdi on the beaches of Turkey, close by a tourist resort. I carefully sought out embroiderers who fitted in with my tastes and intentions, and Núria Malé, with her shared passion for Dries van Noten, seemed to be the closest,  and we threaded our needles.” Mireia Cuenca i Vallmajó, Art historian and curator.

https://www.ara.cat/estils/brodar-catalunya-helbig-nuria-male-costura_1_1139887.html)