Z krosna do Krosna
INTERNATIONAL ARTISTIC LINEN CLOTH BIENNIAL

11TH IALCB 2022. ACCOMPANYING EXHIBITIONS

The penultimate August weekend in Krosno has for years been a festival for tourists and residents in the Karpackie Klimaty. The festival of border cultures Karpackie Klimaty is the "Z krosna do Krosna" 11th International Artistic Linnen Cloth Biennial 2022. In order to allude to the weaving traditions of the city and the region, which are as much as possible inscribed in the history of the Carpathians, the Museum of Crafts in Krosno has prepared two exhibitions accompanying the 11th IALCB: Niedopowiedzenia. Miękkie Medium. Exhibition of fabrics by Prof. Ewa Maria Poradowska-Werszler and We Are! Ukrainian art fabric from the Collection "Z krosna do Krosna".

The individual exhibition of the works of Prof. Ewa Maria Poradowska-Werszler began in the Piwnica PodCieniami Gallery with a solemn opening on August 18, 2022, during which the important anniversaries of Prof. Poradowska-Werszler were celebrated in Krosno – her celebration of 55 years of creative work and 50 years since the foundation of the Grupa Tkactwa Artystycznego "10 x Tak". The brick walls of the 16th century Krosno's cellars in the front hall displayed the sensual qualities of fabric – soft materials – the artist's favourite material.

Prof. zw. Ewa Maria Poradowska-Werszler graduated from E. Geppert ASP (Acadamy of Fine Arts) in Wroclaw – diploma in 1967. The research was conducted at the Władysław Strzemiński ASP in Łódź. Honorary Citizen of The City of Kowary. President of the NRRWTA foundation. Curator of the Festival of Fiber Art-Kowary. Founder and manager of the weaving gallery "Na Jatkach" in Wroclaw. Passionate about creating unique fabrics. She is engaged in scientific and didactic work. She participated in 86 individual exhibitions and 470 collective exhibitions in the country and around the world. She celebrated the 50th anniversary of her artistic work at the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź and at the City Museum of Wroclaw (2018). For the lifetime achievement she received among others – Knight's Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland "Polonia Restituta", a gold medal "Zasłużony Kulturze Gloria Artis", a gold medal honoured “Zasłużony dla Województwa Dolnośląskiego”, Złotą Odznakę ZPAP, Medal „Merito de Wratislavia – Zasłużony dla Wrocławia”. Works in collections (selection): Vatican City; Graz, Austria; Basel, Switzerland; Szombathely, Hungary; Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia; The Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź; The Museum of Lower Silesian Weaving in Kamienna Góra; Muzeum Lubuskie in Gorzów Wielkopolski; The Naval Museum in Gdynia; The Museum of Crafts in Krosno; Wroclaw Archdiocese Museum; Historical and Ethnographic Museum in Chojnice; Collection – Sadej, Canada; Collection – Line Dufour, Canada; Punta del Este, Uruguay.

"The work of Ewa Maria Poradowska-Werszler is connected with permeating to art fabric Wroclaw’s structuralism. It is characterised by the search for order, balance and environmental coherence. There are echoes of colourism, striving with socialist realism, afterimages of the hills of Lesser Poland, plains of Mazovia, Polish fields and forests – and, of course, indestructible Wroclaw. Like any other structuralists, the author of fiber artworks avoids literality, but the imagination of the receiver tells the descent of the meaning of subsequent fabrics. Storm clouds gloom the horizon, lagoons immerse themselves into the blue of the southern seas, the harvested grain waits to be bound in sheaves, or maybe it is foam splashes glide over the sea waves or migratory birds soar over the fields of crops? Are we not making misinterpretation? I do not think so. After all, the works of artists await a dialogue with the audience. This is what they are for" – a quote from the monographic catalogue of Prof. Michał Jędrzejewski, 2017 MIĘKKE MEDIUM, 50 years of creative work in the field of fiber art,   p. 18.
The exhibition of prof. Ewa Maria Poradowska-Werszler's fabrics accompanies the “Z krosna do Krosna” 11th International Artistic Linnen Cloth Biennial. It can be visited in the museum gallery – Piwnica PodCieniami Gallery (Rynek 5) until September 18, 2022.

The second of the exhibitions accompanying the “Z krosna do Krosna” 11th International Artistic Linnen Cloth Biennial 2022 – We Are! it is a presentation of Ukrainian contemporary art fabric from the Collection "Z krosna do Krosna" of the Museum of Crafts. The exhibition is a presentation of 70 works made by 30 artists from Ukraine – participants of the International Artistic Linnen Cloth Biennial. These are works that were created between 2002 and 2018 – between the second and the tenth edition of the event. The works are in the Artistic Collection of Linen Textile "Z krosna do Krosna" belonging to the Museum of Crafts in Krosno. The collection of exhibits representing modern fiber art consists of fabrics donated by artists participating in the Biennale, but also works were donated to the museum's collections on the occasion of other exhibitions or by the will of the artists themselves. The collection "Z krosna do Krosna" includes more than 560 contemporary works of art made by several generations of polish and foreign artists, representing contemporary trends in the field of artistic fabric. Among them, many represent artists from Ukraine.

In 2022, the Museum of Crafts in Krosno started the 11th edition of the International Artistic Linnen Cloth Biennial, which was not held due to the pandemic situation in 2020. Announcing the recruitment at the beginning of the year, we did not expect, after all, that the terrible scenario of the Russian armed assault on Ukraine would come true. However, on February 24, 2022, history began to go down in the bloody history of the Ukrainian people. Krosno and its inhabitants, as one of the cities located near the border with Ukraine, from the beginning of Russian aggression hurried up with the assistance of our close neighbours. In the face of such a tragic situation, as organizers, we realized that so strongly present at each edition of the biennale, artists of fiber art from Ukraine will certainly not be able to freely participate in the event. Then came the idea of an exhibition presenting Ukrainian art fabric, which was included in the museum collection "Z krosna do Krosna". In this way, the Museum of Crafts in Krosno wishes to express solidarity with war-torn Ukraine. The exhibition is presented in Wieża Farna - the most characteristic, still the highest and strongly connected with the history of Krosno – a building erected in the 17th century.

The exhibition received the title We Are! The title is very symbolic and is intended to emphasize that Ukraine was, is, and will be part of Europe; the world; and the Krosno’s Biennale. Through the presentation of Ukrainian art fabric we want to show emotional support and kindness to our guests from Ukraine, for whom Krosno has now become a friendly shelter.

The exhibition can be visited until September 30, 2022 in the unique, historic spaces of Wieża Farna from the 16th century (Piłsudskiego 5). From the gallery located on the top of the tower, you can enjoy a beautiful panoramic view of Krosno and the region. From this place you can see: Jasielsko-Sanocka basin, Beskid Dukielski with the highest elevation – Cergowa (mountain) and  Pogórze Dynowskie, Pogórze Strzyżowskie – from which the most valuable in terms of various qualities of the Czarnorzecko-Strzyżowski Natural Landscape Park (with The Rock Reserve "Prządki" and the famous castle "Kamieniec" – associated with the genesis of well-known Polish comedy "Zemsta" (1838) written by Aleksander Fredro).