Editorial board
This is the name of an exhibition by the TXT association, which took place from mid June to mid July 2005 in the Art Show in Bratislava, investigating the variability of the expressive forms of contemporary textile art. Even after 10 years, this membership exhibition was attended by 32 of the original 40 members of the association. Agnes Schrammová, curator of the Slovak National Gallery, discusses the questions this exhibition raised in our interview. The exhibition proved that the older generation is capable of competing with the younger one and that it is also capable of working with both new methods and new materials. On the other hand, it is a paradox that it lacked classical tapestry. Despite the fact that fleece, floor décor, plastic, pressed or otherwise processed paper, as well as glass mosaic featured, bound or woven carpet was noticeably absent. This power, invention and tradition have ceased to exist. Unfortunately, the workshops that used to produce these also no longer exist. These changes have not only taken place in the area of textiles as the small glass workshops have also ceased, and with them loss of the authors’ creative opportunities. However, there were also hopeful things at the exhibition – the textile jewels of Silvia Fedorová, for which she was awarded the Bavarian State Prize in 1999 in Munich; the work of Ida Reindlová, Zuzana Boteková, Michaela Trizuljaková, Zuzana Rudavská and Karin Kolčaková. The tradition of holding exhibitions of utilitarian art was a great thing. Eduard Toran with Victor Holešťák-Holubár started four-year exhibitions. The last one took place in 2000. It was incredible to watch the young students of architecture and design. While in the 1980s this was taken with a touch of sarcasm by that particular generation, this young generation has now rediscovered functionalism. I can see a specific problem in the fact that the university does not lead students to study utilitarian art; rather it pushes them away from it.