Right and Wrong Sides
(The IV International Kaunas Textile Exhibition)

by Rūta Pileckaitė

It is obvious that textile art has recently established itself as a leader of applied arts. In Lithuania and the neighbouring Baltic countries, two international textile events, one in Riga, and the other in Kaunas, provide a strong impetus to textile artists. Several past years have revealed an overall tendency that more and more interesting artistic initiatives and developments take place in the so called European candidate countries.
The IV International Kaunas Textile Exhibition had a much wider geography than its predecessors, and an international jury to evaluate the works participating in the contest. The jury, featuring artists and art critics, was headed by Beatrijs Sterk, Secretary General of the European Textile Network. The international composition of the jury added contributed to the prestige of the event, and ensured more objectivity for its decisions. There were other improvements in organisational aspects, firstly, a much wider and more professional dissemination of information. The contest jury tried to find criteria that would enable to select works of interest no only to the specialists, but also to the wider audience.
As a rule, textile artists from the Baltic and Nordic countries are usually the ones most extensively represented in Kaunas. This year the exhibition has become a forum for the meeting of textile artists of different cultures. Besides a wide representation of European artists, it featured nine textile Japanese artists, as well as works from Taiwan. It is interesting to note that two Lithuanian textile artists, Lina Jonikienė and Feliksas Jakubauskas had become laureates of the leading textile events, respectively, in Japan and Korea.
There are several observations to be made on the tendencies in the Right and Wrong Sides, as this was the theme of the event of this year. Huge spacious textile installations are about to fall out of fashion, and a piece of textile work itself becomes the focus of interest. The artists are trying to exploit specific qualities of materials, like textures, the subtlety of colour, and other. The skills of the trade, like weaving and embroidery, are once again given due prominence. The viewer is already used to paper, metal or synthetic materials in textile events, so now textile artists are introducing organic materials, like human hair or dog’s skin. Overall, it is obvious, that textile has already abandoned its traditional decorative function. Contemporary textile artists are driven by a desire to discover and experiment with something new. Yet at the heart of this particular branch of art lies respect to the skills of the trade and understanding of its artistic potential.