A silent thread of tradition, a captured memory, an almost forgotten landscape.
Silk Miniatures is a textile installation that subtly addresses the legacy of the once flourishing silk industry in the Goriško region. A few generations ago, mulberries characterised the landscape and silkworms were part of everyday life, households and the local economy. After the Second World War, silkworm rearing died out, but its traces remain – in stories, memories and hands that still recognise the value of silk thread.
We have unwound real silk thread from locally produced cocoons and woven it into a light, airy structure. In the Solkan Local Community Gallery, we created a space where the past meets modern textile expression: pyramid-shaped structures of mulberry branches support black knitted compositions that preserve space and light. Window niches capture shadows, while the white walls of the gallery are enlivened by thousands of loops of silk miniatures arranged in a rhythmic pattern.
Silk miniatures are not only a tribute to tradition, but also an invitation to observe, to slow down and to become aware of the preciousness of craft knowledge – which, like a silk thread, still connects landscape, people and time.
The project was realised as part of the first phase of the large interdisciplinary project New European Silk (NES) at the University of Ljubljana.
Exhibition at BIEN 2025
The project Fibreing the Landscape (2024/2025) is exhibited as part of the BIEN 2025, textile art biennial and can be seen in Solkan at Solkan Local Community Gallery until August 14, 2025.
The authors
Third-year undergraduate students of Textile and Fashion Design:
Urban Dereani, Zarja Pertoci, Sara Petruševska, Eva Strnad, Zala Šoškič
Mentorship and Support
Mentor, artistic director and author of the exhibition: prof. Marija Jenko
Participating mentors: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Brigita Tomšič (dyeing silk yarns), Prof. Dr. Tatjana Rijavec (sericulture part of the project), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rebeka Lucijana Berčič, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ljubljana, P4-0092 (sericulture part of the project) and Dr. Silvia Cappellozza, CREA Padova, Italy (European silkworm hybrids and silk cocoons)
Technical assistants: Nina Glavič, Veronika Vidmar
Photography: Matej Pirkovič / BIEN 2025
Thanks to: Dr Katarina Šrimpf Vendramin and Dr Petra Kolenc, colleagues at the ZRC SAZU research station in Nova Gorica, for the historical presentation of sericulture in the Goriška region and Maja Botolin Vaupotič for her help in the search for mulberry branches.
