The
beginning of October is a festive time for the lacemaking community of Bobowa in Southern Poland. Since 2000, delegates from European countries have been
participating in the International Bobbin Lacemaking Festival organized by the
local community. The event’s role is to celebrate lacemaking heritage. The
festival exposes the diversity of patterns and skills, whilst for the Bobowa’s
community is a distinctive moment of being recognized nationally and
internationally linking lacemaking traditions through historical times and across
geographical regions.
Czech stall with motifs from fashion show 'Dream of the Sea' by Prague lacemakers. Photo by Beatra Jarema. |
Jadwiga Wegorek from Cracow, Poland, with her award winning lace with at the Bobowa festival. Photo by Beatra Jarema. |
The
17th International Bobbin Lacemaking Festival was held on the 6th -
9th October, Poland, gathering 19 groups from 14 countries: Argentina,
Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, Estonia, France, Holland,
Hungary, Russia, Slovakia, which represented their laces and lacemaking skills
on the stalls. The Programme included lacemaking fashion shows by Czech and
Polish designers, lacemaking workshops for beginners, exhibition by Prague lacemakers
Iva Proškova
and Jitka Egermaierova von Lindern, and a lecture on laces in fine arts by
textiles curator, Joanna Sielska. All events were underpinned by contemporary
folk music from local bands, which emphasized the rural character of Bobowa’s town and rural origins of Bobowa’s lacemaking industry in the region. A few
years ago the village of Bobowa became a small town with great ambition to be a
centre for Uplands craft culture, meanwhile renovating its Post-Socialist
landscape, providing modern investments and preserving local multicultural
heritage expressed by architectural forms: mansion houses, churches and a
synagogue. The festival is a great occasion for visitors to learn about the
Uplands past and present, whilst also to understand the status of contemporary
bobbin lace in the broader international context. Symbolic value of women’s
work expressed by a monument of the lacemaker situated in Bobowa’s Main Square
could also be studied in relation to the works awarded during the National
Lacemaking Contest where Slavonic, Czech and Free Style laces demonstrated both
dialogue with tradition and transformations of skills into modern forms.
Examples of lace from the UK at the Bobowa festival Photo by Beatra Jarema. |
Great
Britain’s lacemaking heritage was represented by lacemakers from Kent in
England exhibiting originally designed or reconstructed laces in torchon, Bedfordshire
lace and Buck point lace styles.
By Anna Sznajder
Images:
Beata Jarema
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