With under the weaver’s hands, Kunsthalle Trier opens its doors to a dynamic and thought-provoking dialogue between textile and performance art. Running from March 27 to April 27, 2025, the exhibition invites visitors to explore the intricate relationship between body, material, and societal constructs.
Textiles transcend their functional and decorative purposes—they embody stories, preserve memories, and reflect structures of power, identity, and belonging.
As an artistic medium, textiles possess a rich and diverse history, spanning traditional craft techniques to experimental avant-garde practices. Early pioneers such as Anni Albers, Sonia Delaunay-Terk, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp recognized the potential of textile design within abstract art. Later, the feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s deliberately embraced textiles as a means of articulating political and personal narratives. Today, textile-based artistic practices are experiencing a renewed presence, emerging as tools of resistance, historical reclamation, and the deconstruction of established norms.
The exhibition under the weaver’s hands brings to light narratives that have been marginalized, forgotten, or silenced by dominant cultural and social frameworks. Through the layering of threads, the fractures within woven textures, and the irregularities of fabric, the exhibition reveals absences and gaps—those silences overlooked by prevailing historical narratives. Here, the thread assumes a symbolic role: as a vessel of memory, an act of defiance, and a marker of complex identities.
Textile craftsmanship has long been intertwined with binary gender perceptions. While traditionally associated with femininity in the Global North, in other cultures—such as West Africa or Japan—it has historically been male-dominated. Meanwhile, in some societies, gender was never seen as fixed but rather as fluid and adaptable. At the same time, Western art discourse frequently marginalized textile-based practices as mere craft, relegating them outside the realm of “high” art.
under the weaver’s hands critically examines these narratives and questions how textile practices have historically shaped, regulated, or defied notions of identity.
A complementary performance program expands on these themes, making the exhibition’s woven narratives physically tangible. Through movement, language, and interaction, textile structures are activated—the material is no longer simply observed but experienced. In this synthesis of performance and textile art, under the weaver’s hands invites reflection, remembrance, and transformation.
Exhibiting Artists:
Mercedes Azpilicueta
Bérénice Gaça Courtin
Pierre-Yves Delannoy
Robert Gabris
Katharina Gahlert
Olivia Rode Hvass
Melike Kara
With Performances by:
Sadrie Alves
Bérénice Gaça Courtin
Pierre-Yves Delannoy
Klara Virnich
The exhibition is curated by Çağla Erdemir.
Organised by
Supportet by
Supported by
Robert Gabris | Supporter
Austrian Federal Ministry for Art, Culture, Civil Service, and Sport
Sadrie Alves | Supporter
We are pleased to announce our collaboration with Fluid Materialities and the participation of Artist-in-Residence Sadrie Alves in the exhibition under the weaver’s hands. The Fluid Materialities artist-in-residence program, directed by Marie-Luise Meister, is funded by the EU and the Goethe-Institut
Opening on March 27, 2025, at 6:00 PM
We warmly invite you and your friends to the opening of the exhibition “under the weaver’s hands” on Thursday, March 27, 2025, at 7:00 PM at Kunsthalle Trier.
Evening Program
From 6:30 PM – Arrival of guests
7:00 PM – Welcome
Simon Santschi, Director of the European Art Academy Trier
7:10 PM – Introduction
Çağla Erdemir, Curator of Kunsthalle Trier
7:30 PM – Performance “In my Family… (Extended)”
Anouk Barakat, Pierre-Yves Delannoy, and Mauricio Hölzemann
From 7:50 PM – Champagne reception, get-together, and exhibition tour
20:45 PM – Performative and interactive closing “Adelphes à tisser”
Bérénice Gaça Courtin
We look forward to your attendance!
