Requiem

"The stringing together of the symbols creates a wide, several metres long black shawl that evokes the tradition of Spanish mourning veils, or shawls. And as is customary with mourning shawls, Tanja Boukal makes these lace embroideries using viscose, a man-made silk. In a tedious process, each individual stitch is individually entered into a computer to then be implemented by the embroidery machine. Here, too, there is a parallel to the historical production process, where the embroiderer had to set each individual stitch in advance on a duplicating machine.

The Requiem mourning shawl separates its wearer from the world, protecting her grief over loss and defeat just as much as it makes it visible. But the awareness of loss contains the end and a chance for a new beginning. " (Berthold Ecker, Exhibitionfolder "Do you know that we have lost")

Photos: Michaela Dvořáková