The cultural heritage of sericulture and silk production, traditions and customs inspired the students to incorporate natural silk, ignored in the chaos of the modern world, into their artistic creation. In the infinity of the transition from the earthly to the transcendental, the metaphorical nature of silk is stretched between lightness and heaviness, between softness and sharpness. By weaving threads that are vital to the survival of silkworm caterpillars, the students embodied their virtuoso work to place fragile beauty before human intervention in natural processes.
Exhibition at BIEN 2025
Selected works from the project Silk – material and metaphor in the creative process (2024/2025) are exhibited as part of the BIEN 2025, textile art biennial and can be seen at various locations in Nova Gorica, Kranj, Idrija and Jesenice until August 14, 2025.
GONG Gallery, Nova Gorica
The students unwound barely visible, light and airy continuous silk threads from more than two hundred cocoons grown locally. They spun them into yarn for the hand-weaving of a double weave, which was created in group work to form a picturesque whole in an irregular chequerboard pattern, in which the lustre of the silk surfaces alternates with the shaggy effect of mohair wool and silk. It is presented as part of the group exhibition of the BIEN 2025 textile art biennial at the GONG Gallery in Nova Gorica, where four ikat paintings with a characteristic blurred pattern are also on display. The paintings are made of thicker yarn spun from unwound cocoons and other silk scraps. The students have refined them using the reserve dyeing technique of ikat, which they originally modelled. After removing the wrappings, the base threads were woven, embroidered or left as they were after the reserve dyeing.
Other artworks in the group exhibition at GONG Gallery include two independent silk metaphors by students – Threads of Life by Ema Cestnik and Air Caught by Julia Arnšek. The first work, with its spatial arrangement of abstract, cocoon-like silk structures, epitomises the extremely vulnerable stage of the silkworm’s pupation, a key moment in its life cycle. In the second work, the feather-light silk fabric was solidified with epoxy resin, creating air bubbles on the surface.
Layer House, Škrlovec Tower, Crobath Family House, Kranj
In the Layer House in Kranj, dioramas by Taša Blatnik, in which fragile, light miniature textile structures are interlaced, convey a feeling of floating in dialogue with the light. Opposite are three more ikat paintings and, in the immediate vicinity, the artwork by Alja Rojko, whose spatial placement Parasite raises a multitude of questions about human existence in a world that is destroying it in the name of capital. And yet, doesn’t nature already mock its own measure of power? In contrast, Tina Mohorčič’s unusual biomorphic forms M81//SILK have revealed an interesting property of naturally flexible materials. When we harden them, we permanently redefine their shape, just as the life of silkworms changes irrevocably when they turn into butterflies in their cocoons.
Julija Muhič has illustrated the enclosure, the inner struggle and the final escape with three crocheted cocoons made of black wire in the Škrlovec Tower. The first is still completely trapped in the rod structure, the second is freeing itself from its shackles, and the third is already floating in space.
With the triptych of Lacrimosa assemblages, in which a light silk structure made of silk and mohair wool appears in combination with Polaroid images, Julija Potočnik has developed an innovative example of a modular textile creation in the form of jewellery, which is exhibited in the Crobath Family House building in Kranj.
Mercury Smelting Point, Idrija
The Mercury Melting Point in Idrija, a centre for the management of mercury heritage, presents digital prints of silk metaphors by Valentina Sinkovič, Julija Muhič and Ema Cestnik. Valentina addresses the viewer with a surreal combination of animate and inanimate matter – with the spatial figuration of hands against the flatness of the textile pattern. Julija has arranged picturesque frames of original drawings of hand-woven cocoons into a comic of image modules reminiscent of an architectural façade. Ema has maximised the random placement of colourful silk-cotton pieces with digital printing, creating a light rococo atmosphere in the firmament.
Dolik Gallery, Jesenice
The artworks of Urban Dereani and Akir Latić are exhibited at the Dolik Gallery in Jesenice. Urban, fascinated by the phenomenon of the goddess Feng Po, who carries the winds in a bag, complemented the deconstruction of the portrait with plant ornaments. Akir, on the other hand, enveloped the historical background, the muted motif of the Silk Road, in a colourful fog of an enlarged graphic grid, creating a monumental painting on the largest possible scale with a digital print of silk fabric in the form of a colourful textile pattern.
The authors
Third-year undergraduate students of Textile and Fashion Design:
Eli Arapova, Julia Arnšek, Taša Blatnik, Ema Cestnik, Brina Cotič, Urban Dereani, Larisa Gregor, Ivona Ivanovska, Neža Kavčič, Ida Križnič, Akir Latić, Lia Likar, Filip Minoski, Tina Mohorčič, Julija Muhič, Zarja Pertoci, Sara Petruševska, Julija Potočnik, Alja Rojko, Taja Sejdić, Valentina Sinkovič, Eva Strnad, Zala Šoškič, Tara Urbanč
Mentorship and Support
Mentors and artistic directors: prof. Marija Jenko, doc. mag. Arijana Gadžijev
Participating mentors: doc. dr. Mateja Kert (barvanje svilenih prej), prof. dr. Tatjana Rijavec (svilarski del projekta) in doc. dr. Rebeka Lucijana Berčič, UL VF, P4-0092 (svilogojski del projekta)
Technical assistants: Veronika Vidmar, Marjeta Čuk, Mojca Košir, Nina Glavič
Photography: Jaka Ceglar, Maša Pirc / BIEN 2025, Urban Cerjak / BIEN 2025
Thanks to: Inštitutu za svilogojstvo in svilarstvo Rebeka Lucijana Berčič za podarjene kokone in svetovanje, Alberti Rožanec, Maji Botolin Vaupotič in Alenki Rupnik za pomoč pri različnih svilarskih tehnikah
