Friendship of Nations
2011
Installation, variable dimensions.
Materials: textile banners made by Polish or Iranian craftsman and woman
Collection: M HKA, donation by/de Christian Kaspar Schwarm, 2022.
The Friendship of Nations banners explore the unexpected points of commonality between the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and Poland’s Solidarność movement of the 1980s, events that coincided with major geopolitical shifts in the twentieth century, resulting in the emergence of political Islam on the one hand, and the fall of communism on the other. Made by tailors in Iran and seamstresses in Poland, the banners also speak to the unlikely points of resonance between craft traditions of the Catholic faith and Shi’a Islam.
List of banners: