Courtesy of the artist and Christina-Marie Lümen.
On the occasion of Inspire Writing, an exhibition presenting Montblanc’s rich history until the present day, five works by Chloe Bensahel are on view at Montblanc Haus, Hamburg. Bensahel’s works explore the relation between text and textile, forming a bridge to the company’s legacy.
Four of the works presented belong to Bensahel’s Text Tapestries, an ongoing body of work started in 2016. The works are based on a traditional Japanese technique for repairing old textiles, kami-ito, in which the artist writes on handmade paper, which she then tears and twists into a thread which she weaves into a carpet, alone or together with other materials.
Ada I and Ada II contain text passages by the British mathematician Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), who developed the first forms of a computer program. Here, the artist addresses the historical connection between weaving and modern technology, a subject which she continues in her Interactive Tapestries (2019-). The diptych “When I was…” (2019) is based on an online confession in which a male user confesses to teasing a girl at school and his regret about it. The work addresses the relationship between visibility and invisibility, secret and revelation. The complete confession is not legible, only a few letters appear at the beginning and end of the confession; the diptych thereby takes up the ambivalent dynamic of the online confession and brings it into a physical form.
R (2022) combines different materials. By using so-called invasive plants, which came into Western use through a colonialist context, Bensahel explores questions of material history, collective consciousness and her own biography as the daughter of Moroccan parents who grew up in France and the USA. The motif of the work is based on Hebrew script and thus refers to other art forms such as calligraphy or drawing. Through the multitude of references, Bensahel achieves an expansion of the concept of textile art towards history, language, and writing.
Chloe Bensahel (*1991) is a Franco-American artist living and working in Paris, FR. Her practice blends traditional textile techniques, and tapestry in particular, technology, and performance. Inspired by her own intergenerational history of migration (Algeria, Morocco, France, USA), she examines textile’s potential for storytelling and the relationship between text and textile, identity and material. Her Interactive Tapestries, originating in a collaboration with Google Arts & Culture and the Mobilier Paris/Jacquard Studios, aim at expanding the sense of touch as an independent form of perception, as a supplement to a primarily visual or cognitive reception. The artist studied Integrated Design at Parsons the New School of Design in New York. After an internship at Studio Sheila Hicks, she learned traditional weaving techniques at Studio Jun Tomita, Kyoto, and at the Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne. In November 2023, Bensahel was awarded the Prix des Amis du Palais du Tokyo, followed by her solo exhibition at the museum in April 2024.
Courtesy of the artist and Christina-Marie Lümen.