After almost 20 years, the German Textile Museum Krefeld is once again devoting itself to contemporary tapestry art in the ARTAPESTRY 7 exhibition. The museum is the first and the only venue in Germany to present 37 artworks from 15 European countries in this traveling exhibition: Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, the Isle of Man, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The show's next venues are in Denmark, Lithuania and Hungary.

The textile works provide a multifaceted overview of contemporary tapestry trends and show a variety of themes, techniques and design media, from hand-woven to digitally jacquard weaving. The selection of objects is based on a juried competition organized by the European Tapestry Forum (ETF) of last year. Founded in 2001, the aim of this organization is to promote the continuous development of tapestry art in Europe. A few years later, in 2005, the first juried exhibition of contemporary tapestries entitled ARTAPESTRY was launched. This triennial travelling exhibition is organized by the ETF Steering Committee and has taken place in a number of European cities over the years.

The artworks in the exhibition show a wide range of artistic positions in contemporary European tapestry art. Traditional craftsmanship is combined with unusual materials and innovative technical and color solutions, and the complexity of life in the 21st century is translated into tapestry in figurative and abstract imagery. Personal biographies and experiences play just as much a role as the close interweaving of general human existence with endangered nature, the changes in living space and the challenges of mass societies shaped by the global economy and digital media.

All textile are characterized by the specific property of weaving, the binary system that is fundamental to the creation of woven images. From a multi-perspective point of view, the artists explore connections between warp and weft systems, the interplay of individual threads and groups of threads, different material qualities and the modulation of contrasting color tones as well as haptic effects and arrive at surprising solutions in their works.

ARTAPESTRY 7 shows works by Edit Balogh, Joan Baxter, Brita Been, Anet Brusgaard, Ariadna Donner, Margret Eicher, Lise Frølund, Linda Green, Dace Grinberga, Carmen Groza, Mette Hansen, Birgitta Hallberg, Hele, Peter Horn, Tonje Høydahl Sørli, Feliksas Jakubauskas, Aino Kajaniemi, Elzbieta Kedzia, Irina Kolesnikova, Søren Krag, Louise Martin, Ann Naustdal, Anna Olsson, Gudrun Pagter, Aleksandra Parol, Sarah Perret, Marilyn Piirsalu, Ieva Prane, Lija Rage, Renata Rozsívalová, Ana-Maria Rugescu, Dorota Taranek, Marie Thumette Brichard and Izabela Walczak.

Online catalog and flyer are published.

Interesting facts about our exhibitions

Textiles are very sensitive pieces. Light, dust, and changing climates can prove to be extremely problematic to historical textiles. This is why we do not have permanent exhibitions; instead, we rely upon presentations focussing on changing themes that are never on display for any longer than four to six months. We always showcase our textiles at a maximum of 50 lux and a constant temperature of 18 degrees Celsius and 50% humidity for their protection.The museum is closed to the public in between exhibitions.