weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 78
The textile, in this sense, could play an important role in the
development of the literacy in several cultures:
“In Peru, where no written language in the generally understood sense had
developed even by the time of the Conquest in the sixteenth century, we find
– to my mind not in spite of this but because of it – one of the highest textile
cultures we have come to know.”118
The quotation above suggests that weaving in some traditions may
have served as a recording of semi-verbal codes, like musical, poetic
or other codified systems. Textile, as its name implies, can also be
seen as a materialised form of ‘text’ as language, and so become
capable of capturing linguistic forms when transmitted through
rhythm formula or symbolic content.
One of my observations about the ‘sounding carpet’ experiment,
was that the participants albeit unintentionally, drifted towards the
rediscovery of a pre-cultural and pre-traditional layer of individual
and/or collective mind. The main sources of inspiration for the vocal
improvisation were invited from the perception and observation
of colours and shapes without literal interpretation. This way the
participants were letting the carpet – as an object of observation –
become a real information medium in its original sense:
in-formationis. Something that leaves a trace in somebody so that
it forms/moves inwards, can then be expressed in a participatory
improvisation in order to permit people to let something find form/
move outwards, as the etymological meaning of emotion: e-motus,
moving outwards.
heavily impacted by historical tragedies as well as lighter stories from
newcomers to the village. The material used on the performance walk
included some of the common songs and kulning gestures learned
earlier by the partnership.119 At particular chosen locations the walk
came to a stop and village participants shared something about their
life stories. The walk started from the train station and ended in the
park of the local Catholic church, where the main, final event took
place: the inauguration of the ‘carpet of the village’, symbolically
received by the local mayor. In this way the carpet represented a
network of the different destiny yarns, which came together in a
single texture, as a symbol of the community.
This Performance Walk, which resembled a carnival-like participatory
promenade, enabled the seventeen visiting artists from six different
countries to interact meaningfully in an extraordinary complex
intercultural ‘moment’ with the local village inhabitants. On the one
hand, there was an obvious intercultural aspect to the multilingual
performance with performers from several nationalities. On the other
hand, the action itself, its message to the village and its historical
layers had another intercultural aspect: the creation of opportunity
to collectively reflect and connect to the identity of the village. This
has less to do with people coming from different countries and
representing different nationalities, and more to do with individuals
who are, nowadays disconnected from their own ‘original’ national
traditions and are therefore living their identity in a more dynamic
way. The performance walk enabled reflection on the sense of
belonging by the individuals who live in this little village, and also
revealed that whilst these neighbours might speak the same
Performative walk
On the 8 th of June the Weaving Voices partners realised their final
performative act, which was an interactive walk through the village
with singing. The main idea of this walk was to make visible and
audible some of the autobiographical narratives told to us by the
people who live in Szalatnak. This included episodes that were
118 Albers, A. On Weaving (2017) Princeton: Princeton University Press. See also: Capone, F. Weaving Language - Language is Image, Paper, Code and Cloth (2019) New York: Studio Hudson, p. 25.
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119 Kulning, the Scandinavian herding call, is one of the shared practices of the Weaving Voices project. For a
more detailed description, see the 5 th chapter of this book (Creative space in a natural setting, pp. x), written by
Wendela Löfquist.
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