INTRODUCTION

As part of Dubai Design Week, Tashkeel collaborates with Hybridart to present the interdisciplinary, experimental and interactive Soundweaving project produced at Moholy- Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest (MOME) in Hungary. The work of textile designer Zsanett Szirmay, based on traditional Hungarian embroidery, was first showcased at Vienna Design Week (2014). In 2015 the Soundweaving exhibition went on a very successful European tour in Germany, Poland and Bulgaria. The Soundweaving − Middle East Edition shown at Tashkeel replaces the Hungarian embroidery patterns with those taken from rugs created by Afghanistani women artisans who work under the Fatima Bint Mohammed Bin Zayed Initiative (FBMI). The knotted rug motifs were transformed into sounds by a punch card comb music player, with the pattern of holes on the tape in the musical box designed by the author of the work, Zsanett Szirmay.
The punched tape acts as the score and conversely, the patterns on the rugs are turned into laser cut textile pieces. Soundweaving is intended to stimulate all the senses, calling for interaction – using multiple media and communicating on diverse planes, combining the craft, design and music. It belongs as much to the analogue as it does to digital realms, with the handmade rugs being interpreted into laser cut patterns. Similarly, visual straddles audio, with the more graphic as opposed instructional aspects of music mark-making becoming instrumental to the tunes. Dániel Vikukel worked with the graphic patterns of the rugs to map and develop patterns of sounds that culminate in the Soundweaving tunes. Soundweaving – Middle East Edition is intended to act as a bridge between two worlds, connecting distinct cultures whilst bringing together a range of artistic approaches and practices – from craftsmanship within textiles and weaving to music composition and graphic design.

ARTISTS

ZSANETT SZIRMAY

She is a 2nd year MA student at MOME's Department of Textile Design. She is a member of the Society of Hungarian Electrography and a regular participant at the Society's group exhibitions. She has already had numerous exhibitions at the Heimtextil fair in Frankfurt. Her designer approach is characterised by venturesome experimentation and integrative thinking.

DANIEL VIKUKEL

Composer and pianist. The contemporary quartet Silence Fiction founded by him is a frequent participant of the Hungarian jazz scene. Since their debut in 2014, they were asked to play at big festivals like Vesprémfest and CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival. The band has concerts at the Müpa - Palace of Arts and at the Budapest Jazz Club regularly, and played at Reduta Jazz Club in Prague, Czech Republic and Kunsthalle Weimar, Germany. Released in November, 2015, their first album contains Daniels compositions just as arrangements for jazz standards and pop songs. The releasing concert was held at the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy, with famous guests like Károly Binder and Mihály Borbély. He composes for several ensembles and teaches music theory and piano playing with the experience, individuality and creativity in the center.

COOPERATING PARTNERS

Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest

The history of Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest is based on tradition and innovation. Its spirit is rooted just as much in its more than 135-year-old past as in its passion for renewal and openness towards the world. MOME is an educational center and an intellectual workshop at the same time, an indispensable element of the Hungarian creative industry and culture. The university’s educational structure comprises the fields of design, architecture, media arts, and theoretical studies. Education at MOME is characterised by interdisciplinarity, integrated approach, design- and research-based thinking. The university offers three study-levels: BA, MA and DLA/PhD (Doctoral Degree). With its programmes and initiations MOME accept challenges in the field of social responsibilities. The intellectual and creative capacity of MOME serve the creation of values along social affairs. Due to numerous programs running in English and to its excellent international contacts MOME attracts a high number of students from other countries too.

Hybridart Management

Design. Fine art. Art management. Hybridart has been working in the field of contemporary visual art since 2005 with the objective to venture beyond classical forms of the art scene and bring Hungarian and international contemporary art and design closer to the wider public. Based on this concept, Hybridart has organised a number of recurring programmes. Art Moments, a series of events in visual arts started in 2010, involving a great number of locations and artists in the past few years in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, as well as in a number of cities in the country and abroad. Hybridart launched Zenith Art Exchange programme in 2013 with the aim to help international dialogue in art and provide collateral exhibition opportunity to Hungarian and foreign artists. Besides the international representation of contemporary art, promoting Hungarian design plays an important role in the programme of Zenith Art Exchange, too. In collaboration with Design Terminal, Hybridart Management represented Hungarian designers at Design Days Dubai in 2015 for the second time.

Fatima Bint Mohamed Bin Zayed Initiative (FBMI)

The desperate situation of war-stricken families in Afghanistan moved Her Highness Sheikha Fatima Bint Mohammed Bin Zayed to establish FBMI, an Initiative dedicated to alleviating this long-term distress, by providing resources, compassion and the opportunity for impoverished women to free themselves from economic hardship and take a leading role in Afghanistan’s future. Fatima Bint Mohammed Bin Zayed’s aim is to create sustainable development by empowering women. The Initiative provides women with employment in the carpet production process, an industry they already possess skills in. It also offers them and their families critical social services in healthcare and education. The result is a holistic effort whose benefits are seen not only in fruitful employment, but also in healthier and happier families and communities.

Tashkeel

Established in 2008 by Lateefa bint Maktoum, Tashkeel is an independent contemporary art organisation based in Dubai committed to facilitating art and design practice, creative experimentation and cross-cultural dialogue. Placing the artist at the core, Tashkeel supports the UAE’s creative community through studio facilities, artists’ residencies, international fellowships, a programme of exhibitions, events and professional as well as recreational workshops.

CONTACT

Rita Mária Halasi, curator

E-mail: galeria@mome.hu

Mobile: + 36 20 914 3810

Zsanett Szirmay, artist

E-mail: zsanair@gmail.com

Mobile: +36 30 427 0653

IMPRINT

Artist: Zsanett Szirmay

Composer: Dániel Vikukel

Graphic design: Anna Bárdy

Curator: Rita Mária Halasi

Photo: Sándor Fövényi
Copyright Text and Design, 2014, MOME
All rights reserved!