Category Archives: News

SILKNOW’S European Heritage Award/ Europa Nostra Award

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On the 21st of December, SILKNOW will hold a ceremony to unveil the bronze plaque commemorating the European Heritage Award. It will take place in Valencia (Spain) at the beautiful cultural center La Nau and will be retransmitted by SILKNOW’s YouTube channel. To attend in person, inscription required by filling out this form.

SILKNOW will count on the presence of stakeholders related to cultural heritage and some local authorities and media press. Other award-winning projects and the silknow consortium will also be present. This will be an opportunity to continue weaving our past into the future. 

The agenda will be:

10:00 – 11:30Project presentations
Eva Kaptijn. Heritage Quest., the Netherlands
Zachary Jones. Heritage Opportunities / threats within Mega-Events in Europe- HOMEE.,  Italy | Cyprus | Poland | United Kingdom
Elisa Monsellato, Alessandro Monsellato. Swapmuseum, Italy
Kasra Seirafi. Fluxguide.
Inger Leemans. Odeuropa.
Xavier Giner. SILKNOW and young designers.
11:30 – 12:00Networking break
12:00 – 13:00European Heritage Award Ceremony
Inaugural speech. Dr. Carlos Hermenegildo Caudevilla, Vicechancellor of Universitat de València.
Europa Nostra Speech. Bárbara Cordero
Greeting speech from SILKNOW project. Dr. Cristina Portalés and Dr. Jorge Sebastián
Doctoral Thesis Awards
Group photo
13:00 – 14:00Catering / Lunch
14:00 – 15:30Marina Martínez: Talk on HE Cluster 2 and related calls
15:30 – 16:30Guided visit to La Nau

The past 26th of September, SILKNOW was laureated with the European Heritage Award/ Europa Nostra Award in the Research cateogry and with the Grand Prix award for Innovation in presence of the Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Hermann Parzinger, Executive President of Europa Nostra, and Ondřej Chrást, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic, on behalf of Minister Martin Baxa. The ceremony assembled some 600 heritage professionals, volunteers, lovers and supporters from across Europe, including a large group of young people.

SILKNOW Partners:

Universitat de València, GARIN 1820 S.A. and the Instituto Cervantes, from Spain; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – Lyon 2 and EURECOM, from France; Universita Degli Studi di Palermo, from Italy; Institut Jozef Stefan, from Slovenia; Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, from Germany and Monkeyfab, from Poland, have participated in SILKNOW.

SILKNOW Activities:

Conferences, exhibitions, fashion catwalks, training and capacity building programs, publications. 

SILKNOW Results:

SILKNOW Net Actions

SILKNOW winner of the EuropaNostra Grand Prix Award

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SILKNOW was laurated with the Grand Prix award for Innovation in presence of the Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Hermann Parzinger, Executive President of Europa Nostra, and Ondřej Chrást, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic, on behalf of Minister Martin Baxa. The ceremony assembled some 600 heritage professionals, volunteers, lovers and supporters from across Europe, including a large group of young people.

The winners of the 2022 European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards, Europe’s top honour in the field, were celebrated with a prestigious ceremony held at the iconic State Opera of Prague.

“SILKNOW has created an innovative system to facilitate the transfer of the knowledge of silk weaving. This project represents an important example of how crafts, and therefore intangible heritage, can be linked to digital tools and how these tools can be used to democratise access to technical knowledge. The project’s machine-learning thesaurus is particularly interesting and has the potential to be applied in other areas of research,” stated the Awards’ Jury.

From 2018 to 2021 we produced digital tools beyond current technologies to improve our understanding and conservation of European silk heritage. SILKNOW helps preserve the intangible heritage of ancient weaving techniques by using pre-existing digitised information about silk to study, showcase and preserve silk digital collections. Users can access the collections through an exploratory search engine, spatio-temporal maps and 3D visual and tangible simulations. This broad approach is made possible through the close cooperation of a multidisciplinary team with a wide range of expertise.

We have woven a network with different users, from museums to young designers, from technology to traditional industries. Community, identity, history…Tangible and intangible experiences, technology, knowledge, arts and crafts inherited generation after generation. Let’s keep weaving our past into the future.

SILKNOW Partners:

Universitat de València, GARIN 1820 S.A. and the Instituto Cervantes, from Spain; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – Lyon 2 and EURECOM, from France; Universita Degli Studi di Palermo, from Italy; Institut Jozef Stefan, from Slovenia; Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, from Germany and Monkeyfab, from Poland, have participated in SILKNOW.

SILKNOW Activities:

Conferences, exhibitions, fashion catwalks, training and capacity building programs, publications. 

SILKNOW Results:

SILKNOW Net Actions

Rethinking Textile Conservation- Series Lectures

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Textiles are over 5 000 years old and common to all civilizations, past and present. A rich and diverse living heritage that comprises a multitude of materials, techniques, and shapes. Besides being a fascinating testimony of humankind’s ingenuity, textiles provide exceptional opportunities for the heritage sector to nurture innovation, promote respect for diversity, and public engagement. Textile production, trading, and conservation are inter-related topics that bring together multiple influences and areas of knowledge, providing a valuable medium for social cohesion and promotion of sustainable development. They encompass important overlapping aspects of tangible and intangible heritage, nature and culture, traditional knowledge and state-of-the-art research. Time is ripe for rethinking how we approach textile conservation. Simply safeguarding collections can no longer be our final goal. Conservation has to grow into an effective means to promote and sustain the realization of the full potential of our textile heritage.

The webinar organized by our colleagues from ICCROM, will bring together a diverse group of international panelists to share their views and experience on this topic. Their case studies include the journey of archaeological textiles from excavation to conservation, research, and community-based activities in China; the revitalization of India’s ‘Rafoo’ traditional culture of repair; the development of new digital tools in Europe to support creative industries taking inspiration from textile collections; and the role of conservation in the evolution and transformation of the Maya textile tradition in Guatemala.

Moderator

  • José Luiz Pedersoli Jr, ICCROM

Panelists

  • Zhao Feng, Director, China National Silk Museum
  • Rini Hazel Templeton, Research Assistant, National Museum Institute, India
  • Mar Gaitán, Research Assistant, University of Valencia, Spain
  • Barbara Knoke de Arathoon, Associate Investigator, Ixchel Museum of Indigenous Dress, Guatemala

Link to the webinar

Join us on 25 November 2021. Registration is mandatory and FREE.

https://iccrom-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1sZ19Fh_Tfi-7O6CexDNBQ

Weaving our Past into the Future

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On the 14th October, SILKNOW had its final review meeting. All work packages were presented, after a discussion, the work done so far in SILKNOW was approved according to the EU standards. It has been more than three years of weaving our past into the future. We have woven a network with different users, from museums to young designers, from technology to traditional industries. All to protect, conserve and disseminate the important heritage of silk.  Here is a summary of what we have been weaving these years and why.

Silk has surrounded us for centuries, from royal beds to traditional costumes, from liturgical vestments to ceremonial flag. It has been everywhere, within the Silk Road,  but also beyond it. Silk weaving has shaped manufacturing cities and trade routes, engaging visual artists, engineers and multitudes of workers.

Community, identity, history…Tangible and intangible experiences, technology, knowledge, arts and crafts inherited generation after generation. It is a link from the past to the future.  This heritage is still alive, but it may die soon. The artisans who used to weave using traditional techniques and looms are disappearing. Valuable historical fabrics are endangered by their sheer fragility. But technology continues to be very close to silk heritage, even today.

“The Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns, just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.”

We have taken Ada Lovelace’s words as an inspiration to merge humanities and technology, in a team coming from six European countries. We have been working during three years to protect and disseminate silk heritage, weaving a net among academia, computing, arts and crafts, design, and creative industries.

Conferences, exhibitions, fashion catwalks, training and capacity building programs, publications, all around silk heritage, have contributed to illuminate its important past, and its promising future.

In addition to that, we have created some digital tools

We have worked to create a unique resource, a thesaurus about silk in four languages, including one thousand words. It is based on many sources from across Europe,so that experts, museums, and just about anyone can delve deep into this knowledge.

Looking carefully at historical techniques, we have produced a digital memory tool, the Virtual Loom, that is able to weave on screen like a Jacquard loom does, giving the creative industries a chance for experimentation and business.

We have integrated the information from many museums bringing together data about thousands of objects around the globe locating them in time and space, giving everyone access to this hidden but precious heritage.

In short, we continue to weave the past into our future. Do you want to join us?

  • First Review

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Winners of the SILKNOW- Instituto Cervantes writing competition

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Silk heritage is much more than textiles, it includes ideas, innovations and, of course, language exchange. To demonstrate this, SILKNOW, through its partner Instituto Cervantes, launched a literary competition inviting students at A2-B1 level to write a text inspired by the teaching materials “La Ruta de la Seda”.

In this compendium we present the winners of the competition. They have spun words through Spanish, weaving the past into the future.

AUTHORS LYON CENTRE:

  • My silk grandmother. Catherine de Coster. 1st prize.
  • When the Silk Road passes in front of your house. André Lauga. 2nd prize.
  • The silk scarf, a fashion accessory? Sylvie Thiault. 3d prize.

AUTHORS MANCHESTER CENTRE:

  • The Silk Road. Anonymus. 1st prize.
  • Silk and Spanish connect the world. Anonymus. 2nd prize

AUTHORS WARSAW CENTRE:

  • A paradise of colours. Ewa Ayton. 1er premio.
  • The Silk Road Journey Part I – Venice Martín Rodal Martínez. 2nd prize.
  • Dear Maria: letters from a traveller to his girlfriend. Anonymus. 3d prize.

Ganadores concurso redacción SILKNOW- Instituto Cervantes

El patrimonio de la seda es mucho más que los tejidos, incluye ideas, innovaciones y por supuesto, intercambio de idiomas y evolución del lenguaje. Para demostrarlo, SILKNOW, a través de su socio, el Instituto Cervantes, convocó un concurso literario invitando al estudiantado nivel A2-B1 a escribir un texto libre que estuviera inspirado en los materiales didácticos «La  Ruta de  la Seda».  

En este compendio presentamos a los ganadores del concurso, quienes a través del español, han hilado palabras, tejiendo el pasado hacia el futuro. 

AUTORES CENTRO LYON:

  • Mi abuela de seda. Catherine de Coster. 1er premio.
  • Cuando la ruta de la seda pasa delante de tu casa. André Lauga. 2do premio.
  • El pañuelo de seda, ¿un accesorio de moda? Sylvie Thiault. 3er premio.

AUTORES CENTRO MANCHESTER:

  • La ruta de la seda. Anónimo .1er premio.
  • La seda y el español conectan el mundo. Anónimo. 2do premio.

AUTORES CENTRO VARSOVIA:

  • Un paraíso de colores. Ewa Ayton. 1er premio.
  • Viaje por la ruta de la seda parte I – Venecia. Martín Rodal Martínez. 2do premio.
  • Querida María: cartas de un viajero a su novia. Anónimo. 3er premio

We are open! Avec notre passé, tissons notre avenir

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On Monday 7th June, the exhibition “Avec notre passé, tissons notre avenir” opened to the public in the Instituto Cervantes in Lyon.

It will remain open from 7 June to 30 September 2021 , and will show how, thanks to the immigration of important Italian silk craftsmen since the 13th century, Lyon was for centuries a silk-making centre in Europe and became, in the 18th century (the golden age of European silk) the most important city in the design, production and innovation of the silk textile industry, and how, in turn, it exported its know-how to other European towns, especially Valencia in Spain, which later became a major centre of production.

Avec notre passé, tissons notre avenir

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The Instituto Cervantes in Lyon is pleased to invite you to the opening of this exhibition on silk and its history in Europe, which is part of the Silknow project, on 7 June at 5.30 pm.

The exhibition Avec notre passé, tissons notre avenir (With our past, we weave our future) – which will remain open from 7 June to 30 September 2021 – will show how, thanks to the immigration of important Italian silk craftsmen since the 13th century, Lyon was for centuries a silk-making centre in Europe and became, in the 18th century (the golden age of European silk) the most important city in the design, production and innovation of the silk textile industry, and how, in turn, it exported its know-how to other European towns, especially Valencia in Spain, which later became a major centre of production.

Register to attend the opening!

Best Practices for the Documentation & Digital Data Curation for Textile Collections

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Access to cultural heritage is recognised as a basic human right. Its enjoyment and recognition by the community makes them become its custodians, valuing it as worthy of protection. Despite textiles -and especially silk- play a key role within the history and current life of so many European communities, it is insufficiently recognised as an important kind of cultural heritage, of both tangible and intangible nature. Moreover, its conservation is a very complicated task, given its own physical fragility, and its dispersion in many small institutions.

On the other hand, the digital challenges faced by museums vary greatly, depending on their size, financial and human resources, etc. Small and medium size museums have little access to digital tools and repositories that can allow them to share their data beyond their own walls and websites.

Digital open access and data management is therefore one of the major challenges facing museums. Indeed, a large number of culturally significant historical artefacts have been digitized and made available online. This means that experts in cultural heritage, and often the general public, now have the ability to search for and access information about artifacts instantaneously, even when these are stored in distant parts of the world. However, each institution has its own cataloguing practices, that sometimes change, even within the very same museum. The resulting information can therefore vary greatly. The inherent heterogeneity of these data results in the creation of silos, incompatible with each other, and therefore mutually incomprehensible. Data heterogeneity is further increased by the multiplicity of languages used. This makes the discovery of these data even more difficult, as it requires users to master various languages and very different information management systems, as well as explicit or implicit data models. To begin to overcome these issues, museums need to talk to each other, as they are the first to suffer these problems. SILKNOW provided three workshops as a forum to share, debate and propose best practices that should help many museums that share the same situations.

The resulting guidelines are quite broad, since the extreme heterogeneity of collections, institutions and contexts makes it very difficult to provide more specific advice. However, we are sure that this first step is already a valuable contribution for a number of goals, such as the consolidation of museums in the digital arena, through a widespread adoption of digital open-access policies; the support and training to museum professionals tasked with its cataloguing and dissemination; the  recognition of textile heritage, its value and complexities; and the need for its increased protection. National plans or international charters should play an instrumental role in this regard. 

Download the best practices here.

#SILK. From fiber to textile

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On 9th April 2021, we visited Algemesí, a city near València (Spain), where we attended the reopening (after months of restrictions due to COVID-19, a new exhibition) of the local museum “Museu València de la Festa“, dedicated to the local festivity in honor of the Virgin Mary, registered in the list of Intangible World Heritage.

In this occasion, a new temporal exhibition of traditional & contemporary silk textiles and attire was the attraction of the opening.

The exhibition, named “#SILK. From #fiber to #textile (1890-1990), has been curated by Guillem Bernat Alventosa Talamantes, a particular collector who is exhibiting his own contemporary collection of haute couture with other traditional dresses. Silk is the “guiding threat” along all the pieces exhibited, which are divided into two sections, one for the traditional and local garments and secondly, other which gathers the contemporary & high fashion designs made by acclaimed fashion designers.

Steps into a #SILK preservation plan

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Following our goals in terms of preservation of the #silk heritage, we visited the Museu i Col·legi de l’Art Major de la Seda (Museum & College of High Silk Art) in València, on 31st March 2021.

The College of High Silk Art is one of the most prominent buildings of Valencian architecture and culture. It is located in a special area in the historical heart of the city of Valencia: Velluters’ (velvet artisans) neighborhood.

With the transformation, restoration and renovation of the building (it dates from the 15th century) in the last years, driven by Hortensia Herrero Foundation, a piece of material and immaterial history of the city has been recovered, as the guild of silk weavers was reference in the world and one of the engines of the Valencian economy. The archive of the College of High Silk Art  is the most important in Europe and maintains a large number of copies from its inception to the present in scrolls, books and file boxes.

We met with some of the Board Governors from the nowadays Velluters’ Guild, building contacts and partnerships. First we presented our project and the updated results, as our Thesaurus, ADASilk and the Virtual Loom, tools which we offered to being used in their museography as much as the could be useful. We also encouraged the Board members to add their digitalized records to the huge database SILKNOW project is building in collaboration with Mueums, institutions, etc.

But, our main and central discussion was about the shared worries on the future perspectives of silk weaving tradition, threatened by multiple circumstances and challenges. In this moment, local artisans are suffering the consequences of the world pandemics of COVID-19, as the festivities and celebrations are not taking place, and most of their textile production is focused on folklore dresses. The transmission and legacy of the weaving techniques knowledge and textile craft was another key point of our meeting, as there are no ways to coach new artisans and professionals in the traditional techniques, there are not any educational plans or programs which include weaving tuitions.

Because all of these, we agreed in continuing working together, along with the creative industries in order to build a new plan on silk preservation, which would be send to the Spanish Government, to emphasize the need of concrete and useful measures, taking steps in the safeguarding of this traditional craft.