The workshop led by artist Željko Beljan focused on merging digital tools with traditional techniques to create contemporary wall hangings. Wall hangings are textile decorations that are hung on walls and are a part of tangible traditional heritage. They are typically white with embroidered floral motifs and depictions of interiors, with frequent portrayals of women as housewives accompanied by stereotypical captions.

Participants, including students from The tenth grammar school Ivan Supek and the School of Applied Arts and Design, generated “new folk wisdom” using artificial intelligence (ChatGPT) based on traditional proverbs. They embroidered these new sayings onto textiles. The workshop raised awareness about how we communicate with artificial intelligence and explored the relationships between different times, experiences, and realities while breaking the “rules” of wall-hanging embroidery and challenging stereotypical representations and proverbs. After the workshop, the wall hangings were exhibited at the Youth Center Ribnjak.

This artistic workshop, which connects embroidery, wall hangings, and artificial intelligence, builds upon Željko Beljan‘s previous work, Truth is a Forgotten Memory, which he produced in 2022 with artist Rebecca Merlić as part of the Ignorance is Strength? Artistic Expression and Biopower in the Post/Pandemic Age residency organized by the European Alliance of Academies.

The event was part of the Nova u Centru program, funded through a special public call for Culture and Art in the Community by the City of Zagreb.

The program is supported by:
City Office for Culture and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb
Kultura nova Foundation