– Pablo Picasso, 1935

 

Gallery Moshe Tabibnia is pleased to present the project Weaving Peace to mark Design Week 2023.

 

Arranged as a thematic display in the Sala Brera on the ground floor, the exhibition presents six tapestries loosely based on several elements that make up Guernica (1937). Pablo Picasso’s famous work was in fact displayed just once in Italy, exactly 70 years ago. FromSeptember 23rd to December 31st, Guernica was shown in the context of a solo exhibition in the Sala delle Cariatidi of the Palazzo Reale of Milan. Here it was exhibited together with over 300 other works by the Spanish master in what was the greatest Picasso retrospective ever organised in Italy. At the time of the exhibition, the Sala delle Cariatidi still bore traces of the bombings of the Second World War, a fact which enhanced the relevance of the work.

 

The exhibition Weaving Peacewas conceived by MAN Museo d’Arte in the Province of Nuoro. The museum first displayed these tapestries as part of the important event Picasso and Guernica: Genesis of masterpiece. Against all wars, which ran until 19 February 2023.

 

Recently, the Museo Reina Sofia also decided to include these tapestries in the section Rethinking Guernica, which was based on contemporary allusions to Picasso’s masterpiece.

 

As part of the tributes to Picasso’s artistic genius to mark the 50th anniversary of his death, the exhibition Weaving Peace: An Homage to Guernica opens together with the project PICASSO - Un tableau me vient de loin. 15 drawings from 1905 to 1970, a display of drawings by the great master to be held on the third floor of the gallery BUILDING in Milan from 14 April to 27 May 2023.

 

The works that make up the project Weaving Peace: An Homage to Guernica are the fruit of the efforts of Studio Pratha, a creative experimental workshop that joins contemporary artistic inspiration to the age-old practice of weaving, which is still performed in the village of Sarule in Sardinia.

 

Basing its approach on the principles of arte povera (‘poor art’), Studio Pratha produces works characterised by conceptual abstraction. The rediscovery of this expressive means is linked to 20th-century experimentation in textile arts; it draws on Bauhaus forms and idioms while welcoming new influences, thanks to recent collaborative projects with contemporary artists. Gallery Moshe Tabibnia indeed paid tribute to this art form in a previous exhibition, Intrecci del Novecento. Tapestries and carpets of Italian artists and manufactures (Triennale di Milano, 2017).

 

The tapestries of the present exhibition were executed in the Sardinian region of Barbagia, where weavers only use Sarda sheep’s wool. The weaving is performed manually on a vertical loom without the aid of mechanical tools.

 

Gallery Moshe Tabibnia chose to host this project to give well-deserved exposure to the artisanal and artistic practice of Studio Pratha, a rare phenomenon in the world of textile arts as well as the last stronghold of the tradition of Sardinian weaving. Studio Pratha is indeed committed to promoting and revitalising this age-old trade, whose techniques today are known by only a handful of experts.

 

This project forms part of the gallery’s long-established aim of promoting textile arts as a broad artistic phenomenon, one which is not the exclusive preserve of a few dedicated practitioners. The intent is to both bring younger generations closer to the field and to give textile arts, both traditional and contemporary, their due place in the art historical, scientific and cultural spheres. This objective is indeed in line with the general trend of recent years of an increasing presence of textile works on the market and their growing importance in the pursuits of Italian and international artists.

 

 

*C. Zervos, Conversation avec Picasso, in "Cahiers d'Arts", Paris, Edition Cahiers d’Art, n.10, 1935, pp. 178-79.‘How is it possible for an observer to experience a painting of mine as I experienced it? A painting comes to me from afar. Who knows from what faraway place I felt, saw and painted it! Yet the next day I don’t even recognise what I did.’