Ask a Balkan family in Britain what travelled in the suitcase, and sooner or later a piece of cloth enters the answer. A folded wedding textile, perhaps, or a garment kept for decades because wearing it would feel too ordinary. Those cloths, and the people who carry them, are the subject of Interweaving: Textiles between Britain and the Balkans, which opened on 9 November at the Goldsmiths Textile Collection and Constance Howard Gallery in London and runs until 21 January 2027.
Woman's chemise, possibly for maternity, possibly North Macedonia
The curators, Arbër Qerka-Gashi of Balkanism and Jelena Sofronijevic of EMPIRE LINES, work together as bunar, a word meaning water well in Albanian and many South Slavic languages. A well makes a handy image for this show. Groundwater ignores borders, and so do the habits of making and wearing cloth that run beneath the region’s many nation states. Their aim is to pull up shared memories from beneath divisions that politics has drawn above ground.
Balkan embroidery, pieced together to make a chair cover. Unknown origin.
Across the Balkans, textiles have long belonged to both everyday and ceremonial life. They reflect local landscapes and customs, and they carry the imprint of centuries of indigenous, regional and imperial influence. Move a cloth to Britain and its job changes. It becomes a marker of belonging and a way of keeping distant people and places within reach.
Sequined blouse from Muntenia, Romania
The display draws on the Goldsmiths Textile Collection and bunar’s own archive, set beside contemporary art by Jagoda Buić and Jasmina Cibic, among others. Fabrics, garments, archives and artworks are put into conversation, so Britain and the Balkans can be read against each other across time. Mary Edith Durham and the Albert Kahn Archive add historical perspectives. The list of participants also includes Unrecorded Textile Makers and Workers, a credit that gives overdue recognition to hands whose names were never written down.
Hand knitted socks, possibly Bulgarian
British Balkan communities sit at the heart of it. Alba Imeri, Maya Bajrami, Thea Dzozlic and Vanessa Bajrami shared personal stories for the display, so the objects arrive with the memories attached to them, and cloth becomes a way of understanding real lives.
The gallery is in the Deptford Town Hall Building at Goldsmiths, University of London, and is open on weekdays from 1 to 4pm. A curator’s talk and tour takes place on Thursday 26 November from 6 to 8pm, with a booking link to follow. The exhibition is supported by Counterpoints Arts.
Go with your own family’s cupboards in mind. Many of us have a drawer or trunk holding a textile that nobody is quite willing to part with, and this show is a good excuse to ask where it came from.
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Further Information:
Interweaving: Textiles between Britain and the Balkans, is now on at Goldsmiths Textile Collection and Constance Howard Gallery in London, and runs until 21 January 2027.
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Image Credits:
Lead: Ladies jacket with braid trim, Albania.
All further images as credited in captions and courtesy of Goldsmiths Textile Collection.