FIBER SITES: from “Trame d’Autore” to the Civic Collection of Fiber Art

TThe City of Chieri, ten years after the first Biennial “Trame d’Autore”, intends to implement a project that focuses attention on the Civic Collection of Fiber Art, initiated at the same time as the Biennial.

Under the organisation of the Associazione Piemontese Arte and curated by Silvana Nota, the project envisages long-term developments aimed at the research and in-depth knowledge of the use of textiles in contemporary art.

The initiative is also supported by the Università degli Studi di Torino, with which a project is under way to conceive a museum location and the possibility of creating a laboratory in Chieri where students can undertake in-depth thematic studies and initiate new research, thanks to the physical presence of the works and a fund of books and documents.

The first appointment of a series of events is the presentation of the entire Collection, which has been enriched with new works and will be illustrated by a monograph. This volume, published by Celid of Turin and entitled Sperimentazioni tessili. Chieri da “Trame d’Autore” alla Collezione Civica di Fiber Art, documents the whole Collection and traces the parallel evolving of Fiber Art, which has reached its current position from its historic roots, enlivened by an increasing number of artists interested in its linguistic and experimental possibilities.

Under the aegis of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, the Provincia di Torino and with the support of the Regione Piemonte, the event will take place in March 2008, on the occasion of the ten-year-old “Trame d’Autore”, when, opened by the artist Martha Nieuwenhuijs, the Collection will be inaugurated.

Furthermore the project takes part to the “Torino 2008 World Design Capital” calendar and to the OFF EVENTS of UIA XXIII World Congress – Torino 2008.

The Collection will then find a permanent home – almost a Museum of Fibre Art – in the Exhibition Room of the Civic Library, which, from 2004, is housed in the former Tabasso Cotton Mill, acquired by the Comune di Chieri to make into a cultural services centre. The great room once housed the Revision and Weight Control department. The architect Gianfranco Franchini, in charge of the restoration, has succeeded in an act of conservative restoration in maintaining the shed roof, in order to maintain the good top lighting, and the original flooring, which evokes the atmosphere of the building’s earlier function.