Newsletter European Textile Network (Hannover, 2003)

CULTURAL FOUNDATION 4 NET OF THE EUREGION FOR TEXTILES ASSOCIATION EUROPEAN TEXTILE NETWORK THE ETN-NET ALLIANCE AN INTEGRATED CONCEPT ON TWO PILLARS 4 4 COUNCIL OF EUROPE 4 4 ASSEMBLY OF EUROPEAN REGIONS 4 4 4 4 4 Mailing address: ETN-NET Secretariat P.O.Box 5944 D-30059 Hannover Tel.+49-511/817006 Fax+49-511/813108 ______________________________E-mail: ETN@ETN-net.org http://www.ETN-net.org______________________________ CONFERENCE PREPARATION IN UNCERTAIN TIMES A t the time of writing (March 13th) we are still at peace. What does our com­mon interest in textiles have to do with politics - our mem­bers may ask. But it has, as a small note in the world press made clear: When Colin Powell did his multi-media presentation on February 5th, 2003, to con­vince the UN Security Coun­cil members to take military action against Saddam, the "Guernica” tapestry hanging at the entrance of the UN Se­curity Council was covered up ahead of Powell’s speech. It was clear that no photos of Colin Powell should be made in front of an anti-war image! "We only do this until the cameras leave” was what the media liaison told (source: The Washington Times). Guernica was a small Span­ish town, the first to be com­pletely bombed - on April 26, 1937, by German and Italian squadrons. Somehow there seem to be rests of bad con­­ciousness about the moral right to bomb down a town, or was it pure cynism from the side of US public relation ser­vices? The tapestry after the paint­ing by Picasso came to the United Nations in 1985 as a gift by the estate of Nelson D. Rockefeller. Tapestries glori­fying military action were made in history but not after World War II, there was at least some progress in human development since the last re­turn to barbarism. Are we bombed back into dark times again? One American journal­ist wrote "Nowadays, you’d have trouble getting "Guerni­ca” past a committee. To grace an important building, it would have to be something entirely more enigmatic.” Also our Conference is al­ready overshadowed by fears of war: We had been very proud to have some group members of a costume group from Jeddah/Saudi-Arabia coming to Prato in September to show parts of their collec­tion there. Now they wrote that they will stay home and wait for better times. What we as ETN can do, is staying in contact and making new contacts with all non- Western cultures. Only by knowing a culture one is able to respect it and we, the tex­tile people, have the advan­tage of sharing a very visual and sensual language. We hope that our Prato Conference will not be further affected and that as many of you are able to come and en­joy the late summer in Tus­cany making new textile friends. Beatrijs Sterk Picasso’s Guernica, painting (above) and tapestry at the entrance of the UN Security Council ARTISTS AT WORK - NEW TECHNOLOGIES & MATERIALS This competition is issued by ETN member, the Textile Muse­um of Prato, in cooperation with the ETN Secretariat. Artists working with new textile tech­nologies and/or materials are asked to submit work for an exhi­bition from 18.9.-3.11.2003 at the new location of the Prato Tex­tile Museum in conjunction with the ETN Conference from 18.- 21.9.2003. The town of Prato is one of the very few European cities were 80% of people em­ployed are still working in tex­tiles. The planned exhibition will make a link between artists work­ing with new materials and tech­niques - used in the textile indus­try - and the textile industrialists. The Prato Textile Museum is one of the few museums collecting textile innovation from today’s in­dustry. The jury is composed of: Emanuele Lepri, Director of the Textile Museum; Patricia Kinsel­­la, textile designer and organiser of the exhibition; Miranda B. MacPhail and Stefanie Gori, tex­tile art curators; Frances Geesin, textile artist and Beatrijs Sterk (ETN’s General Secretary and publisher of Textile Forum). At the time of writing, submissions are coming in thick and fast. Dis­cussions have already started as to the meaning of new materials and techniques. The jury mem­bers are aware that different inter­pretations are possible. Partici­pants are advised to read the competition text carefully and to describe their new technique/ma­­terial as precise as possible in the application form. Forms and text are found on www.po-net.prato.it/ tessuto/common/eng/atwork.htm Address: Textile Museum, Piazza del Comune 9,1-59100 Prato, Italy; tel. +390-574/611503; fax +390-574/444585; e-mail: museodeltessuto@pp-net.prato.it Deadline: April 7th, 2003

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