“The Gesture Is Everything”

The following extracts are from an interview between Inês Jorge and Isabel Oliveira, one of three remaining professional practitioners of Guimarães Embroidery. All women, these artisans have been invited to participate in the artistic residencies of Contextile: Contemporary Textile Art Biennial, an event held in the city of Guimarães, Portugal, since 2012. The conversation took place in September 2020 via Zoom, and reflects on the collaborations between the embroiderers and the artists in residence of Contextile. As part of the special issue “Exhibiting Craft,” this Statement of Practice complements Jorge’s article “So Far and Yet So Near: The Artistic Residencies of Contextile Biennale Amidst a Pandemic,” which examines the artist-in-residency program of Contextile 2020. The interview focuses on the voice of the maker, exploring their role in preserving endangered craft practices by teaching them to contemporary artists, and in conveying objects and stories for community-based projects. We suggest readers work across the interview and article, and their accompanying images, to grasp the complexities of these collaborative practices

Art · Conversation · Craft · Painting · Sociology · Visual arts · Communication · Crafts, Textile, and Design · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Fashion and Cultural Textiles