Critical Craft: Inter Woven Practices was an intense 2 week workshop between İstanbul and Kahramanmaraş (Turkey). The workshop aimed to build on existing work completed by HiM (Herkes İçin Mimarlık) & KAF Kolektif in order to provide ongoing engagement with communities heavily affected by the February 6th earthquakes in 2023.
The workshop combined an exploratory practice led research component, with an in the field community engagement period. Embracing practice as research the participants engaged with the topics of weaving, waste and situated knowledge through building a series of rudimentary looms that then allowed them to (re)weave found, surplus and waste textiles that we had collected during the workshop.
The field period was based in Kahramanmaraş, utiling an existing space that HiM had built as part of their 'Post Disaster Reconstruction Plan'. The participants specifically engaged with local women and children as a way to try to create space for collective recovery as well as sharing of skills and knowledge. Together, participants and locals explored the potential of using waste materials to produce new textiles, rich with the narratives, histories and labours of the otherwise discarded materials from which they were made.
The workshop was conducted in collaboration and with the support of Herkes İçin Mimarlık and KAF Kolektif. This workshop was realised with partial funding from the EELISA Alliance as an inter-university activity between Istanbul Technical University and Universidad Politecnica de Madrid within the EELISA Circular Community. The exhibition will be open to visitors until the 1st December 2023.
Participants: Antonio Parilla Ayuso, Aslı Gökçe, Ayşegül Yiğit, Burak Ercanli, Ezgi Küçükpehlivan, Laura Perez Tembleque, Leyla Hepsaydir, Melike Beşik & Sure Tuna
Designed and organised by: Vivien Tauchmann, Ela Gok & Sam Price
Co-ordinated by: Sam Price, Dr. Aslıhan Şenel & Dr. Bihter Almaç
