THE PLIABLE PLANE. Exhibition Brochure

Tapestry was once considered to be one of the highest forms of art. Regarded as a luxury item, the silk or wool fabrics, run through with gold or silver threads, were a symbol of political power and royal status. However, from the eighteenth century, the prestige of tapestry began to wane and the trend was not reversed until well into the twentieth century. Renewed appreciation of textile art was largely the product of feminist reappraisals which freed the genre from some of its more negative connotations – decorative, domestic, collective, manual and feminine – and helped reclaim it as a tool of cultural, political and gender discourse.

Centring on a selection of pieces from the Banco de España’s textile collection, ‘The Pliable Plane’ combines classical and contemporary works, exploring fabric as a space where art, architecture and industry converge. The title is taken from Anni Albers’ groundbreaking essay ‘The Pliable Plane: Textiles in Architecture’ (1957), in which the artist argued that fabric is an active plane rather than a rigid wall; a functional system capable of organising space, filtering light, absorbing sound and creating a physical experience.

Curated by Yolanda Romero, the exhibition offers an expanded interpretation of textile as a field of symbolic, material and emotional output, bringing together a wide range of contemporary art that challenges traditional pigeonholing of the discipline. The exhibition highlights the way in which weaving serves as a medium in which memory, labour, physicality and knowledge converge, transcending its status as mere ornament or technique.

N.B.
Please note that the downloadable PDF version of this catalogue (see left-hand column) may not fulfil some WCAG 2.0 guidelines on accessibility. However, most of the content is available, in an accessible format that meets 'Double A' criteria, from the Collection section of the website.