In the last four years, Waag and nine European partners and craftsmen have experimented in Mingei project by documenting and digitalising crafts, storytelling, interactive Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and motion capture.

During this webinar on Mingei Day we would like to share and discuss the results and knowledge we gained. In four online panel discussions, experts from all over Europe will discuss and share their views on how to preserve crafts and how we can keep improving this in the future. During the webinar, participants will also have the opportunity to ask questions online.

Join the conversation! The link to the meeting will be provided to you by email. This event will be recorded.

Programme

16.00 hrs – Welcome Mingei Day – host Nicole McNeilly (Impact Evaluation Advisor Waag)
16.05 hrs – Introduction to Mingei Project (Xenophon Zabulis – Project Coordinator Mingei)
16.15 hrs – Expert panel discussion will cover the following questions:

1. What is the urgency of preserving and documenting crafts?
2. What is the impact for the craft and heritage community, education and future generations?
3. What tech advances are helping us make steps in the preservation and documentation of crafts?
4. How could the Mingei platform be useful for future users to make the impact sustainable?

17.35 hrs – Q&A from participants and recap lessons learned
17.45 hrs – Closing

Panelists

• Xenophon Zabulis – Research Director FORTH, project coordinator Mingei
• Carlo Meghini – Research Director at CNR-ISTI and developer Mingei platform
• Arnaud Dubois – Research Associate at CNAM, social anthropologist Mingei
• Eirini Kaldeli – Researcher and AI expert involved in the Crafted Europeana project
• Marinos Ioannides – UNESCO chair Digital Cultural Heritage at Cyprus University of Technology

Have a look at this episode of Euronews (Europe’s leading international news channel) dedicated to one of the many innovative ideas of Mingei that engage today’s youth with past traditions.  

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 822336.

The concept of the Exhibition

The basic idea of the exhibition consists of presenting in public 84 artistic cushions from the “Is & Zhu Stathoyiannis collection” and highlighting the thematic dialoque developed between the digital artistic drawing by Ioannis Stathoyiannis (fabric printed) and the artworks of the visual artists participating in the exhibition.

The place of the Exhibition

It´s also worth noticing that experts and public are called to face a new challenge, since Ioannis Stathoyiannis´s exhibition hosted in one by definition non-museum use space, the Olympic Hotel. This situation highlights one of the groundbreaking trends of Postmodernism, and in particular, that which mentions signs-spaces of the wider urban environment as possible places of presentation cultural material, thus creating conditions of collective historical memory.

The Exhibition and the Artist

Memories, feelings and testimonies compose the identity of the ‘Is & Zhu Stathoyiannis pillows. The digital artistic drawing of Ioannis Stathoyiannis (fabric printed) escapes the decorative spirit of applied arts, or even the spirit of social census or distancing. The digital drawing of Stathoyiannis, endowed with an experiential. Symbolic and conceptual dimension, takes art to the level of concepts, ideas and even emotions that leave their material imprint on the fabric, used as a kind of canvas and a field of artistic expression.
Based on his personal interest in fabrics and textiles, his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Design, Fine and Digital Arts) Universities of Central Lancashire & Wolver Hampton) guided by his memories and travel experiences in Europe, Asia, and America, thanks to his teaching experience in China (Raffles Education Corp. Singapore) and his depth knowledge of Chinese culture and mythology, Stathoyiannis “deals” in his artworks with concepts, such as Place, Presence, Being, Identity, Crisis by expressing his thoughts, and concerns for social issues such as racism, immigration,etc. In his digital drawing, nature plays a symbolic role. There are many references to the Cretan mythology symbols.

The Collaboration with the Artists

In the framework of Ioannis Stathoyiannis´s personal exhibition an open invitation was sent to artists desiring to participate, using the fabric as the basic material of their artworks. The artists were thus invited to a conceptual interaction and to a synergy of high emotional intensity with Stathoyiannis´s digital drawing. In this exhibition, the particularity of expression and the variety of genres have been sought, according to the common objective of composing and exhibiting an artistic universe in dialogue. Works of painting and sculpture, artistic installations and constructions, animated sketches, works that combine textiles, drawing printed on fabric, fashion design, art photography, and poems make up an artistic universe of 21 plus 8 artists in conversation, dividing to four different thematic units in the exhibition.

Written by Argyro Petraki (FORTH), photography and video by Theodoros Evdemon (FORTH)

The team of Mingei Project visited the local industry and interviewed the owner Mrs. Karli Irene. In the beginning, the industry started to create fine hand-woven textiles always on woven looms. Concurrently, they constructed wooden looms, which they sold. Thus, all the cottage industries were started by them. Nowadays, the owner still maintains this craftsmanship, putting warps and selling threads to few weavers that still exist.

Since then, times have changed over the years, the development has made them study the market requirements and needs, and namely what is in high demand and what is more commercial in order to survive and to be competitive in the market. Consequently, they have started to create a variety of products that can be used by modern people, adjusting to their everyday needs. Specifically, at the moment they are producing wallets, purses, mats, aprons, and so on. All the products are made of 100 percent cotton and hand woven on the loom in a traditional way, contributing both to the preservation of this traditional job and to the strengthening of the local economy. Furthermore, at the instigation of the development association of women entrepreneurs of Crete, which often organizes exhibitions,the art of handicrafts is promoted. The industry also undertakes the equipment of hotels, weaving carpets, pillows, framed patterns and various other things in different patterns and colors, since they collaborate with interior designers.

To recapitulate, Mrs Irene Karli has succeeded in preserving a traditional job, which mainly flourished in the past, while at the same time she has tried to adjust it to the needs and requirements of modern societies, intertwining tradition with fashion.

Written by Argyro Petraki (FORTH), photography and video by Nikitas Michalakis (FORTH)

The team of Mingei project visited the mountainous village Anogeia, located at the foot of Psiloritis Mountain on Crete Island, in order to meet a shoemaker called Nikolaos Fasoulas. Nikolaos Fasoulas has been involved in the construction of handmade traditional boots since 1949 until today, at the age of 91 years old. He has been mainly occupied with the creation of traditional, handmade, leather boots known as “Stivania” in the Cretan dialect. That was the first one on Crete, who constructed boots with only one seam, called in Greek “Monokommato”, which means seamless.

The name “Stivania” possibly comes from the Italian word “Stivale” that means boot, something that may be true, as the island was for many years under the Venetian occupation. Stivania are one of the most typical parts of the traditional Cretan costume and a Cretan man’s main pair of shoes, who used to wear them not only in agricultural activities, but also in formal occasions. They are made on the leg of the “client”, as the shoemaker takes measures for each one, so they are tailor made exactly to any peculiarities of the foot. Specifically, they are sewed by hand and at least two days are required for them to be constructed.

There are two different kinds of boots, which are differently constructed depending on the situation in which they are to be worn. First, the shepherds’ boots are called “Vaketa” because they are made of calfskin. These boots have toughened soles and are made οf hard, real leather and rubber so that they are suitable to be worn by shepherds on the mountain of Psiloritis and to protect them against soil irregularities and weather conditions. To exemplify, the shepherds of the area graze their flocks of sheep on the mountain Psiloritis, where intense weather conditions dominate and therefore they have to protect their feet from the rain and snow.

Another category of boots, are those that are suitable for formal occasions, such as weddings and traditional festivals or for everyday life activities. These boots are also made of real leather but they have thinner soles and often do they carry a perforated pattern. Additionally, they are offered in three different colours; black, white, and brown, although the most common of these is black.

In the past, one of the most widespread professions was that of the shoemaker, which was practiced for many years in the form of a cottage industry. Nowadays, unfortunately, this traditional job tends to disappear, as the demand of handmade boots has decreased significantly. There are several factors, which contribute to this phenomenon, the most important of which is the incredibly rapid development of technology. Specifically, in modern technologically developed societies, machinery has replaced labor and manufactured products. Due to the low production cost and the mass availability in the markets, standard products are more competitive than handmade ones, the manufacturing of which requires more time, effort and money. However, in cases where their construction continues, both the knowledge and the taste of the past have been preserved, conveying them to the next generation and promising that these handmade boots will last a lifetime!

Written by Argyro Petraki (FORTH), photography and video by Nikitas Michalakis (FORTH)

In the modern technologically dominated world, traditional arts and professions gradually tend to become extinct, as the vast majority of people prefer to purchase standardized goods offered at low prices rather than handmade ones. In contrast to this tendency, fortunately there are people and organizations that try to preserve the Cultural Heritage artifacts and the way in which they are created, making them accessible to the next generation. One such typical example is the weaving workshop “Aretousa” situated near Archanes Village on the island of Crete, Greece.

History of the workshop

The weaving workshop “Aretousa” was founded on the occasion of some women’s participation in a weaving seminar provided by the Municipality. After the seminar had been completed, some women, who wanted to move forward and utilize the acquired knowledge, came up with the idea to set up a Social Cooperative Enterprise and create hand woven textiles using traditional looms. The start of the workshop was difficult enough for them, since they had to look for traditional, old looms in many storage rooms, an effort that required a huge amount of time because most of them had been burnt or thrown away over the course of time. At last, having found enough looms, they decided to set them up again, giving them life and making use of them in order for the traditional weaving to be revived.

Products

At the instigation of the Development Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Crete and having studied the market requirements and needs, namely what is in high demand and is more commercial, they tried to produce weaving textiles in more modern designs so that they can be used in today’s modern societies. Using recycled clothes as the main raw material and preserving the tradition and the way our grandmothers used to weave, they construct more modern artifacts, such as laptop bags, mats, tablecloths, place mats, purses and various others that can be held by a modern woman or can be laid in modern homes. Some innovations in the field of weaving are also applied in the workshop; women are able to weave both double-sided carpets, which have different colours on the top and at the bottom, and double-width carpets, which means that a carpet of 80 cm can become 1.60 cm.

Mrs Andie, the cooperator of “Aretousa” Workshop

“Aretousa” Workshop collaborates with the craft instructor Mrs. Andie from the Netherlands, who teaches the women in various techniques of her homeland. As Mrs. Andie says: “What I admire is the way women here use the old looms and make textiles of such quality that does not exist in the Netherlands. The only thing that makes me sad is that the original, old wool we have at our disposal decreases. Thus, I would like to make wool from Cretan sheep and prepare it for the loom. Therefore, I try to wrap wool and I discovered that the Cretan one is very useful. Furthermore, it is crucial people be capable of distinguishing the good from the bad one. Unfortunately, the technical knowledge has died off over the years and now I am trying to discover it again.”

To recapitulate, the Social Cooperative Enterprise founded by women aware of the traditional way of weaving succeeded in preserving a traditional job, which mainly flourished in the past, by adjusting it to the needs and requirements of modern societies, intertwining tradition with fashion.

Written by Argyro Petraki (FORTH), photography and video by Nikitas Michalakis (FORTH)