ostZONE came about in cooperation with the Dresden association Kultur Aktiv e.V. and will be continued in the Albertinum on 17 August 2024.
 

My name is Bela Álvarez and I am a Mexican designer and artist who is currently living in Dresden. As an artist, I specialise in working with paper, textiles, embroidery and photo embroidery.

In developing this concept, I found the perfect format to share my work and my experiences for ostZONE in cooperation with Kultur Aktiv e. V. As part of the exhibition “Revolutionary Romances? Global Art Histories in the GDR”, I organised a series of workshops entitled “Holding the Strings” (“Die Fäden in der Hand halten”).

Both the exhibition and the workshop gave us a new glimpse into the GDR and made us think about and analyse topics such as exile, migration, solidarity, racism, freedom, friendships, ideals and a utopian vision.

Each participant had the opportunity to identify with an image; to make a connection and to work on it. People of various ages were involved; some of them had lived through those times, while others from later generations had only ever heard about others’ experiences. They all began embroidering the images with each story, each memory in mind.

No previous knowledge of embroidery was required. A few stitches and a host of colourful threads brought the photos back to life, and at the end of the workshop everyone had an interesting story to tell. It was rather like deconstructing the photographs in order to honour them; each captured a story, and a hand was ready to give each of them a new interpretation and a new life. Images wield power just like the hands that manipulate them, and that understanding was the main aim of my workshop.