Initiation

Contemporary textile art narratives

03. July 2025. – 26. July
MegnyitóOpening: July 2, 2025, 6:00 pm
MegnyitjaRemarks by: Meggyesházi Éda

Hegyvidék Gallery’s group exhibition explores the possibilities of material transformations, the crossing of physical-spiritual regions and/or genre boundaries through contemporary artworks whose main medium is textiles. The exhibition is based on the relationship between alchemy and textile art, which is primarily expressed in the use of materials, symbolism, transformations and the idea of spiritual transformation.

One of the main aims of alchemy is the transformation of matter: the transmutation of ‘inferior’ metals into gold, or, symbolically, the spiritual transmutation of man. Similarly, textile art is a material-based process, in which natural fibres (wool, linen, silk, jute) are processed into a completely new form: yarn, fabric, and then into a work of art or ritual object. The late ancient alchemical manuscripts already correspond to four colour phases (nigredo – blackening, albedo – whitening, citrinitas – yellowing, rubedo – reddening) of the transmutation process, which in the 20th century found further meaning and use in deep psychology through Carl Gustav Jung.

The same colours are also used in traditional textile art, mainly on fabrics made with natural dyes. The ‘workshop’ of the textile artists is therefore also an alchemical laboratory, where dyeing, spinning, weaving, embroidery, sewing and folding can be understood as chemical processes. The transformation, the creative process itself, produces ‘higher’ works from the various ‘raw materials’.

In many cultures, the motif of weaving is a metaphor for the ‘weaving of the world’, the ‘weaving of fate’. The textile artist, like a modern alchemist, ‘weaves together’ different materials, colours, ideas and gives them a new symbolic or spiritual value – thus becoming a way of understanding and shaping the world, as alchemy has been for centuries. The creator consciously transforms materials for a spiritual purpose, mediating between the material and spiritual worlds. In this way, craft knowledge and its transmission (like any transmission of knowledge) can be understood as initiation. The term initiation, in addition to its primary meaning, also refers to the preparation of materials (e.g. fabrics) before use in the processing of textiles (e.g. soaking).

In the new generation of textile art, in addition to traditional weaving, embroidery and dyeing, artists are using and mixing a wide variety of techniques and materials, pushing the boundaries of the genre, while at the same time environmental awareness, sustainability and a multi-sensory vision are becoming increasingly important.

Exhibiting artists:
BALÁZS Nikolett ▪ CSATLÓS Asztrid ▪ DANKÓ Boglárka ▪ GÁSPÁR Annamária ▪ HERBERT Anikó aka Haniko ▪ KACZIBA Andi ▪ KÁDÁR Emese ▪ KISS Adrian ▪ KUZMA Eszter Júlia ▪ MAKAI Mira Dalma ▪ METZING Eszter ▪ PETRÁNYI Luca ▪ SZÁSZ Zsófia ▪ SZELI Kamilla ▪ SZIRMAY Zsanett ▪ VIDRA Réka