“Greek embroidery: history, symbols, meaning, major techniques, and contemporary applications”
Discover Greek embroidery, its history, symbols, meaning, major techniques, and contemporary applications. With textile artist and researcher Loukia Richards.
Greek embroidery is a distinctive style in textile history, a sign language reflecting the cultural background, the trade exchange and the world view of civilizations flourishing in Eastern Mediterranean since time immemorial.
Greek embroidery patterns, ideogrammatic motifs, pictorial and tridimensional techniques also illustrate social and spiritual values. They can be seen as story tellers, cultural heritage mirrors, or political messengers in the context of contemporary art. Embroidery emphasizes the human quest to rise above necessity, to create beauty in abundance, to seek hope and joy even under the most adverse conditions, while it manifests the wearer's social stand, belief system, gender and self perception.
The four-day long intensive Greek Embroidery Residency program in Athens with textile artist Loukia Richards addresses artists, designers, crafters, art theorists and researchers, as well as amateur embroiderers who wish to explore the existential force that drove Greek embroiderers to create eloquent masterpieces, and master some of its most refined and rare sculptural techniques.
The residency + workshop program starts on Wednesday and ends on Sunday. It covers 6,000 years of textile history through collections visits and lectures; it explains the visual traditions that build the alphabet of Greek embroidery; it teaches antique embroidery techniques, and shows how to design and stitch vibrant and eye-capturing motifs on textile.
It also explores the experimental art, conceptual and social bonding uses of Greek embroidery. The Greek Embroidery Residency program motivates participants to create their own embroideries to present at an Athens downtown venue at the end of the residency, and documents their work in a catalogue.
The Greek Embroidery Residency program includes accommodation in the artistic area of downtown Athens. It can be attended by individual artists who wish a highly customized approach, or by small groups of maximum 4 artists / designers / crafters.
Program Details
The Greek Embroidery residency & workshop includes:
- Traces of Ancient Greek embroidery motifs and patterns. How to reconstruct lost textile motifs.
- Late antiquity embroidery motifs and uses.
- The cultural context of Greek embroidery in medieval and modern times. Greek embroidery's connection to the visual language of the icons.
- Greek embroidery motifs: form, use, origins, symbolism, belief system, contemporary meaning.
- Ecclesiastical embroideries, special techniques, the role of textile in Ancient Greek and Christian cult.
- Embroidery for men or women. Perception of embroidery and traditional crafts in Greece.
- A wearable language: embroidery messages in motion.
- How to copy embroidery motifs from a museum's exhibit or tridimensional object.
- Practicing the flat, chain, knot, negative, crazy and fusion stitch.
- Experiments with needles, yarns, textile, paper and other materials.
- Re-using older textiles or patterns. Resource mining.
- Disciplined and freestyle embroidery.
- Greek embroidery and the contemporary lifestyle.
Duration of residency
Four days for groups of up to four participants.
Four days for customized individual (single) participants.
Fees and Support
Option A. 4-day residency program – group of up to four participants
including shared accommodation in central Athens studio apartments: 620,00 euro*.
including individual accommodation in a central Athens single studio apartment: 690,00 euro*.
Please name the dates you wish to attend the residency program – see residency dates above – and specify whether you prefer single or shared accommodation.
Option B. solo residency program – for individual artists & crafters
Exclusive, highly customized 4-day program for one individual artist, designer or crafter. The program starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday, and includes accommodation in a single studio apartment in downtown Athens: 820,00 euro*.
Individual artists, designers, or crafters who apply for Option B may choose one of the residency dates – see residency dates above – or propose their own preferred four-day residency period.
*The participation fee is payable in two installments.
Expectations towards the artist
The participants are expected to have a special interest concerning the material, techniques, and history of Greek textile art.
Application information
Email your application to favelab.info@gmail.com with a cover letter introducing yourself and stating your incentive to participate in the Greek Embroidery Residency program. Include your bio/CV and website/blog or instagram or 6–8 images of your work.