Knitting a Nest
Women from the ex-Yugoslav countries have been a constituent of Slovenian towns for decades. Their presence is well known, while their lives go by somewhat unnoticed. They rarely interact with the mainstream society, have weaker command of the local language, and, all in all, inhabit a sort of parallel world. Ethnic segregation combined with class, religious, and gender inequalities brings along hardships, among them loneliness, lack of meaningfulness, and basic social, cultural, and linguistic skills.
In Jesenice, a small town near the Austrian border, the women from the ex-Yugoslav countries do not remain unseen. Three successful textile designers, Katja Burger, Tjaša Bavcon, and Jasmina Ferček, made it their mission to integrate immigrant women through handicraft. In the frame of their Oloop Institute and with the help of the local Humanitarian Charity Society HOPE (Človekoljubno dobrodelno društvo UP), the artists came up with a project called Revealed Hands, in which they use art as a path to integration:
“communicating through yarn.”
They invited the participants to a soothing artistic expression. Many women were already familiar with knitting and other forms of textile design, which gave them confidence. The organisers also noted that many of the attendees simply needed a safe place and a company of like-minded women with whom they could converse and share pride in their products and skills.
An important goal was for the participants to continue meeting. Jasmina, who took part in our focus group, was proud and happy to know the women made friends within the programme, and together they surpassed the programme’s limits. After the series of handicraft workshops that brought women together concluded, yet they kept meeting. The project was thus not an end in itself, but a start, bringing along long-term effects. As Jasmina put it:
“we created a nest, from which thankful and happy women flew out.”
The Oloop Institute noticed a social group that was rarely brought into sight; they studied their situation, recognized their needs, and assisted the participants not only by enhancing their afternoons with comforting workshops and chatting, but also through knitting long-term friendships and improving their lives as such.
URB_ART spoke to Jasmina Ferček, (co)head of the Oloop Institute (www.oloopdesign.com), arts educator, and an artist active in different fields of visual arts. Oloop has a history of awarded (Alpine, BIO, Red Dot…) art projects addressing the burning questions of health, ecology, sustainability, and migration.
Partners: Revealed Hands (on Facebook) and Humanitarian Charity Society (on Instagram)
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