The first Morus Silk Symposium takes place in parallel to an exhibition in Super Ö at Röhsska Museum of Design and Craft, where artworks and research by 7 members of the community is presented. The symposium program offers presentations, readings, workshops and film screenings.
Participants:
Hanna Norrna (SE) is a textile artist from Gotland based in Gothenburg, with a Master in Craft with specialization in Textile Art from HDK-Valand.
Irini Gonou (GR) is an artist from Athens based on Naxos, educated at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts and Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. h[ps://irinigonou.gr/
Kleopatra Tsali (GR) is an artist from Athens, educated at the Department of Visual and Applied Arts of the University of Western Macedonia, Jan Matejko School of Fine Arts in Krakow and Athens School of Fine Arts. h[ps://www.kleopatratsali.com/
Anna Karlström (SE) is a Senior lecturer in Cultural Heritage at Uppsala University, Campus Gotland.
Deborah Jeromin (DE) is a visual artist based in Leipzig and Crete. She studied media art at Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig. h[p://www.deborahjeromin.net/
Giulia Zanvit (FR) is a multidisciplinary artist and graduate of ESBA – MO.CO in Montpellier, lives and works in Générargues in the Cévennes. h[ps://www.giuliazanvit.com/
Maja Lund (DK) is an artist based in Copenhagen, educated in textile design and crafts at the University College of Copenhagen and holds a Master’s degree in Ethnology from University of Copenhagen. h[ps://kbhplantefarveri.dk/
Overview of Symposium program day 1:
11:00-11:20 – Introduction to Morus project: Artists Hanna Norrna, Irini Gonou, and Kleopatra Tsali introduce the project Morus and the concept of home-sericulture, as the starting point for a two-day Silk Symposium in Super Ö. Book your place here.
11:20-11:50 – A green silk thread tied to the bone: Hanna Norrna’s research presents the early presence of mulberry trees and traces of silk production on Gotland, with links to the parallel events of the Visby Witch trials in 1705-1707.
12:00-12:30 – What the Tree Heard: Kleopatra Tsali explores the silkworm’s metamorphosis as a metaphor for identities shaped in states of transition – personal, cultural and material. Drawing from the borderlands of Thrace and the Pomak village of Roussa, where a centuries-old mulberry tree once nourished silkworms, her work traces ancestral links between land, labor, and transformation.
12:30-13:00 – The hand tool: From silk breeding at school, to research and work in the museum of an old spinning mill – the French artist Giulia Zanvit tells the story of her reconnection with the history of silk in the region of Cévennes in southern France.
14:00-14:30: – The bird, the seed, Naxos, ritual cloths and talismanic threads: Sparked by childhood stories of her grandmother’s silkworm farming in Peloponnese, and the unexpected growth of a mulberry tree in her garden, Irini Gonou’s participation in the Morus project emerged as an artistic inquiry into the intertwined lives of silkworms, mulberry trees, and humans, drawing material from local narratives in Greece and beyond.
14:30-15:00 – Spinning Whorls: Spinning Whorls explores the space where material and living cultural heritage overlap and where scientific, expert-led official cultural heritage management is allowed to run parallel to the everyday and the living.
15:00-15:30 – Threads of Life: Threads of Life explores symbiotic relationships between humans, plants and silk worms. The work is centered around the life of former Danish princess Leonora Christina, Countess Ulfeldt (1621–1698), who was imprisoned for many years.
15:45-16:30 – Guided tour of the exhibition Morus: The exhibition Morus in Super-Ö presents artworks and research by seven members of the international silk community. The room is filled with stories from women in silk processes – industrial, private, ceremonial, mythological – in the past, today and for the future.
Overview of Symposium program day 2:
11:00-12:00 – Workshop for children: The metamorphosis of the silkworm: We use papers, scissors, crayons and glue to create a paper collage of the metamorphosis of the silk worm. Location: Studio at the Röhsska Museum.
13:00-13:45 – Introduction to Morus project: Artists Hanna Norrna, Irini Gonou, and Kleopatra Tsali introduce the project Morus and the concept of home-sericulture, as the starting point for a two-day Silk Symposium in Super Ö.
14:00-14:45 – Riven Threads: The artistic documentary Riven Threads follows the way of parachute silk – from the nationalsocialist silk production as a propaganda program to the Battle of Crete in 1941, where parachutes were later reused by handcrafting women for handkerchiefs.
15:30-16:30 – Reading and reeling workshop: For the Reeding and reeling-session, the participants are offered home-produced silk cocoons to reel thread from, while listening to readings of silk literature by the members of the Morus community in multiple languages, such as: Twisted Bios by Deborah Jeromin, Fallschirmseide / μετάξυ αλεξιπτώτων by Deborah Jeromin, Chrysalis by Hanna Norrna, Hemlighetstillståndet by Inger Christensen, and more!
The Morus Silk Symposium was realised with support from Kulturrådet, Göteborgs Slöjdförening and Wilhelmina von Hallwyls Gotlandsfond
Morus project 