Idil AKBOSTANCI     Turkey

Dilek ALPAN     Turkey

Engin ALPAT    Turkey

Sonja ANDREW     Great Britain

Gaye Kirlidokme BELEN     Turkey

Nurа Er BIYIKLI     Turkey

Eszter BORNEMISZA     Hungary

Rob BURTON     Great Britain

Cigdem CINI     Turkey

Virginija DEGENIENE     Lithuania

Galyna DYGAS     Ukraine

Antonia Maria ERNI     Switzerland

Ursula GERBER-SENGER     Switzerland

Irem Sabanuc GONUL     Turkey

Patricia GOULD     USA

Mihaela Mirela GRIGORE     Romania

Semra GUR     Turkey

Mustafa GURGULER     Turkey

Halil Selcuk GURISIK     Turkey

Tetiana IVANOVA     Ukraine

Elisabeth JOBIN-SANGLARD     Switzerland

Sagari JOSHI     India

Tuna KARAYAKA     Turkey

Fiona KIRKWOOD     South Africa

Maire KOIVISTO     Finland

Nobuko KOIZUMI     Japan

Line KRAMHOFT     Denmark

Jean Pierre AVONTS-SAINT LAGER     France

Hannah LAMB     Great Britain

Anne Mette LARSEN     Denmark

Izabela MAMAK     Poland

Maciej MESZNIK     Poland

Anna MOROZOVA     Ukraine

Olena MYKHAJLENKO     Ukraine

Natalia NESTERENKO     Ukraine

Jevgen PEREKHVATOV     Ukraine

Iryna PESTOVA     Ukraine

Victoria POKYDANETZ     Ukraine

Arpad PULAI     Serbia

Monika RAK     Poland

Tone SAASTAD     Norway

Basak SACLIOGLU     Turkey

Heidrun SHIMMEL     Germany

Anastasia SCHNEIDER     Ukraine

Andrew SCHNEIDER     Ukraine

Ecfir SERPIONOVA     Ukraine

Manuela TODERAS     Romania

Vildan TOK     Turkey

Helene TSCHACHER     Germany

Nesrin TURKMEN     Turkey

Nobuko UEDA     Japan

Ganna VERSHYNINA     Ukraine

Juliana VJUGA     Ukraine

Misako WAKAMATSU     Japan

Vira ZHLUDKO     Ukraine

International Biennial “Scythia 9”, 2012, included:

International Exhibition,

Conference,

Fashion Show,

Master-class

   The 9th International Biennial on Contemporary Textile Art “Scythia 9”took place June 19-24, 2012, Kherson, Ukraine. The Biennial includes International Exhibition, Conference, Fashion Show, Master-classes. Founders and organizers of the project "SCYTHIA" are Ludmila Egorova and Andrew Schneider, members of ETN, members of the National Artists’ Union of Ukraine.

    55 artists from 17 countries were selected to be exhibited at the International Exhibition.

Denmark (2), Finland (1), France (1), Germany (2), Great Britain (4), Hungary (1), India (1), Japan (3), Lithuania (1), Norway (1), Poland (3), Romania (2), Serbia (1), South Africa (1), Switzerland (3), Turkey (15), Ukraine (12), USA (1).


    Three best art works were awarded with medals:


I     Ursula Gerber-Senger  (Switzerland)

II    Eszter Bornemisza   (Hungary)

III   Nobuko Koizumi   (Japan)

Japan-Ukraine 2012

Scythia 2012

Mini 2011

Fibremen 2012

Fashion Show

 

    'Scythia' 9 International Biennial Exhibition

on Contemporary Textile Art Kherson, Ukraine

19th – 23rd June 2012


Rob Burton

Head of design

Teesside University

Tees Valley



     Centred around what is now the Crimea and the southern region of the Ukraine Scythia was a rich empire that encompassed Eastern Europe and parts of central Asia with an influence as far as the classical antiquity of Western Europe on one side and Persia and central India on the other. The Scythian civilisation was built on a deep sense of craft and their arts can be found in the skilfully made gold artefacts discovered in the ancient burial mounds of Scythian lands many of which remain unexcavated. This sense of craft in making and cultural provenance is clearly still evident and could be witnessed at the Scythia 9 International Biennial Exhibition on Contemporary Textile Art and Symposium held in Kherson, Ukraine from 19th – 23rd June 2012.

     The exhibition brought together artists from over 17 countries to reveal an exciting breadth and depth of techniques, craft and creative interpretations of textile themes and contemporary narratives being interpreted by artists across the globe. Many of the works explored themes of memories, reflective practice and the sensibilities of fibre within the modern context of making. The works uniquely contrasted themes and symbols that were eastern European in flavour with reflective methodologies and the revisionist character of international practitioners. ‘The Ties That Bind Panel 1)’ by Sonja Andrew mixed new and traditional techniques with digital printing, heat transfer and stitch in a work that responded in mark, symbol and photographic imagery to deep memories, times past connecting us to a collective consciousness of ancestors and our heritage as lineage. Swiss artist Antonia Maria Erni in her manipulation of found objects echoed this theme in a very different way; old lace, gloves and horsehair. The relationship to the past and our ancestors is found in the media work ‘A Heart Divided’ by Fiona Kirkwood that follows the journey of her ancestors from the heart of Scotland to South Africa mixing the elements of two cultures together. Many of the selected works integrated process and materiality in sculptural forms such as the evocative works of Japanese artist Nobuko Koizumi and the large scale textured work ‘Skin = No.1’ by Danish artist Line Kramhoft that reminds us of our own humanity and our relationship with mortality and the body.

   Kherson, a small welcoming city on the Dnieper in southern Ukraine becomes a focal point for creative engagement during the week of the biennial with the private view revealing a groundswell of support from practitioners, artists and the cultural community locally, nationally and internationally. Networking opportunities and the potential to discuss shared interests in craft and making were plentiful with artists ranging from lace makers to creative fashion practitioners.

     The symposium that ran alongside the exhibition brought together discourse on the contemporary techniques, trends and practices in textile arts with a focus on their relevance and influence within the Ukraine engaging a discussion around the global and the local with contrasts around the traditional and the progressive. Many of the presentations centred on creative approaches to making that utilise traditional practices. The strength of many of the projects presented was in the reflective and analytical nature of practice that questions a sense of self and other through the essential nature of making. This was also reflected in the afternoon ‘Masterclass’ sessions where contemporary approaches to techniques were explored. Selcuk Gurisik, international designer, artist and specialist in material culture inspired with his knowledge and enthusiasm for the traditions and nature of felt making through a ‘Masterclass’ that invited participants to connect with the essential nature of materiality and to play with transformation and translation in the craft of making.

     Scythia 9 symposium presentations covered the broad areas of practice from conceptual making to design. This was emphasised in the fashion show on the Saturday evening in which both craft and youthful creativity showed promise for the future of textiles and fashion in the Ukraine alongside a high level of professional design makers from the Ukraine and Turkey.

  The Scythia 9 international textile exhibition and symposium was augmented by the textile art show ‘Luminous’; an exchange exhibition between Japanese and Ukrainian artists each exploring the expressive qualities of making and medium in a discourse that unfolded in a creative dialogue between the easts of Eastern Europe and East Asia, ‘the Land of the Rising Sun’. Here Kakuko Ishii’s sensual and delicate paper string sculpture’s became organic growing beings contrasting with Andrew Schneider’s narrative philosophical storytelling of man within the universe that speak of the human body as the most beautiful elements of our material life.