Messenger Substances (Botenstoffe)
HALLE 14Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany
25 April 2026 - 09 August 2026
Textiles are as natural as they are ubiquitous in our everyday lives. But on closer inspection, they open up a complex field of tension. This exhibition turns fabrics into messengers and makes visible how closely fabrics, clothing and fabrics are linked to social, ecological and historical processes.
As with many consumer products, the exploitative production conditions towards people and nature in the fashion and textile industry are also concealed by the global division of labour. Consumers in the West who buy ready-to-wear goods in the branches of large fashion chains are hardly aware of the connections to the poorly paid and often dangerous working conditions in the textile centres of Southeast Asia, Turkey and North Africa. Memories of the huge industrial proletariat that was once created in Europe by the revolutionary inventions of the textile industry and of the accompanying transformation processes and social struggles are also fading. The close connections to colonial expansion and the transatlantic slave trade should be remembered again and again. In the same way, with the finished products of the global retail chains, the knowledge and skills of the individual steps of spinning and weaving, dyeing and printing, sewing, knitting and embroidery are increasingly being forgotten. This applies to hundreds of thousands of years old crafts such as the textile innovation history of modernity or simple repairs.
Whether it's a carpet or a shirt – in textiles, utility and symbolic functions are closely linked. Elaborate series of embroidered pictures and tapestries tell of creation myths, saints and ancestral stories and are part of religious ceremonies. Regardless of whether we are talking about the "material" of a novel or the "red thread", textile metaphors shape the art of storytelling, just as the "text" and the "textile" also share the common root word, which is derived from the Latin "texere" for weaving. Those who know how to read textiles can decipher hidden messages. In Charles Dickens' novel "A Tale of Two Cities" (1859), the seemingly harmless knitting is a secret register for the progress of the French Revolution. In the work of the knitting women, the names of their enemies are recorded, who will lose their heads under the guillotine.
Also at the beginning of the revolution to modern industrial capitalism are some technical inventions that continue to have an impact today. The jacquard loom, for example, allowed pre-programmed control of the warp threads with punched card chains and thus the rapid production of elaborate weaving patterns. That's why it is even considered a forerunner of computer technology. Due to its endless possibilities, this invention continues to inspire artists today. It can be used to think about new connections between fabrics, fashion and virtual worlds.
Because textiles accompany the history of mankind, this exhibition tells of old craftsmanship, the history of industrialization to digitalization. Although modern art and abstraction have received numerous stimuli from textile art – even from non-European traditions – their significance is often misunderstood, and their works are relegated to the realms of applied or hobby art. Contemporary positions counter this attitude with their critique and narrative styles, which are dedicated to non-European traditions. In the course of feminist art movements, her association with female housework made knitting and sewing a political gesture of protest against patriarchy in society and art.
Unlike on the painted canvas, the dyed thread is woven into the fabric. Textile works of art are therefore not just mere information carriers. In this intimate connection of content and form, this exhibition highlights them as "messenger substances". In this way, this exhibition encourages visitors to learn to "read" material again. It presents artistic positions that use techniques of knotting, weaving, and sewing to tell stories, bring communities together, and educate about historical and current global contexts.