Golden silk and ancient weaving craft showcased in Qatar

euronews (in English)

Qatar 365 unveils unique textiles crafted from the silk of golden orb-weavers spiders and focuses on the centuries old art of carpet weaving.

Transcript

00:00 You have these crafts that are handed down from the past that are still vital today and

00:06 then design pointing the way to the future.

00:08 The textiles which are on display are the only textiles in the whole world that are

00:13 made of the golden spider silk.

00:16 Each of these carpets will live so much more than us.

00:20 They will over live like many, many generations.

00:24 They are so unique and beautiful because the gold color is actually how it comes out from

00:30 the spider.

00:35 Hello and welcome to Qatar 365.

00:37 I'm Ado Haleem and on this episode we explore the textile industry.

00:42 Laila Humaira introduces us to the sacred rituals women weavers of Afghanistan have

00:47 practiced for generations.

00:49 But first we're at the Museum of Islamic Art for a new exhibition that explores the

00:53 remarkable world of golden spider silk.

00:57 I even got a chance to see a golden cape being showcased in the Middle East for the very

01:01 first time which took two years to produce and incorporates a silk of 1.2 million spiders.

01:12 This exhibition includes four golden textiles crafted from spider silk.

01:17 Yes, you heard that right.

01:19 Silk from golden orb weaver spiders, indigenous to Madagascar and famous for the color of

01:24 their webs.

01:26 One of the things about it is it produces this wonderful gold thread.

01:29 Just the fact that where you know it comes from is already a sort of magical thing because

01:35 it's hard to associate the web of a spider with actually, which is such an ephemeral

01:40 thing which can blow away in the wind and then imagine that as something permanent.

01:45 So and just how on earth do you do it?

01:47 How do you get from being that ephemeral thing to a permanent thing?

01:51 Answering that question has become a labor of love for Simon Peirce and Nicholas Godley

01:55 who spent two decades of trial and error producing spider silk strong enough to produce textiles.

02:01 So every day we have quite a number of people going out in the town with long bamboos just

02:07 catching spiders, putting them in a box, bringing them back to the place which we call the spidery

02:12 which is where we extract the silk and then in the afternoon put them back in the box

02:17 and they are released back into the wild.

02:20 So it's not in our interest at all to kill the spider, we want to keep the spider alive.

02:25 Interest in spider silk goes back centuries but these pieces are the only examples of

02:29 golden spider silk in the world.

02:32 Now if you're squeamish or scared of the creepy crawlers, just imagine the process of extracting

02:37 one ounce or 28 grams of golden spider silk requires the help of 23,000 spiders.

02:45 And a lot of silk was needed for the highlight of the exhibit.

02:49 This gold cape is from the silk of 1.2 million golden spiders which took more than two years

02:55 to produce and over 6,000 hours of embroidery.

02:59 I think you have to be incredibly passionate and maybe a little crazy to commit yourself

03:06 to a project like this.

03:07 It takes time, energy, resources.

03:10 You're surrounded by spiders in Madagascar but they can't be harvested the way that other

03:14 industries are harvested, right?

03:15 So you have to actually go into the wild, catch them, go through the process of removing

03:21 the spider silk and then releasing them back into nature, all the while trying not to get

03:27 bitten by the spider itself.

03:29 The exhibition space is part of the museum's last and final stage of a relaunch project

03:34 that opened before the World Cup in 2022.

03:37 The museum's director says the exhibition embraces sustainability by highlighting the

03:41 use of eco-friendly vegan silk in the final exhibit pieces.

03:46 They are so unique and beautiful because the gold color is actually how it comes out from

03:52 the spider.

03:53 It's natural color.

03:55 For me it's the first time I see such textiles that are not dyed shiny and gold from nature.

04:05 It's also a very sustainable way of producing silk from the spiders.

04:12 There are lots of research done to develop this technique.

04:18 So we have displayed some historical manuscripts and books for the visitors to get to know

04:25 more about it.

04:27 We hope the visitors will enjoy the exhibition and find it inspiring.

04:36 Now you're probably wondering, what does it take to preserve the rare priceless textiles

04:40 found here at the Museum of Islamic Art?

04:43 Whether they're ancient artifacts preserved for generations or relatively new works of

04:47 art like the golden spider silk pieces we just saw, clearly considerable care must be

04:52 taken.

04:53 I recently got a chance to go behind the scenes to see how conservator Dominika Kostelnikova

04:58 prepares the textiles before they're displayed to the public.

05:03 Dominika, there's a big focus on textiles here at the Museum of Islamic Art.

05:10 Can you walk us through the process of how you restore and preserve some of these items?

05:14 The work of textiles conservation includes many aspects.

05:21 For example, the first step when the textiles object reaches the conservation laboratory.

05:28 Usually me as a textile conservator, I need to prepare the condition check and photo documentation

05:36 of objects before any intervention.

05:39 Usually after that, we need to photograph.

05:42 The textile conservator research the objects, I mean different textile techniques or composition

05:50 of textile fibers.

05:52 And there is a lot of questions which we need to answer for them.

06:00 So here at MIA you have textiles from all over the world, from Africa, Asia, and Europe

06:06 particularly.

06:07 Is there a big difference when you're working with pieces from different locations, different

06:12 time periods?

06:13 Yes, the textiles which we have in MIA collection includes different textile techniques.

06:20 For example, the people in the past, they used different techniques for decorating of

06:29 textiles in Europe and in Central or East Asia.

06:34 The same with woven of fabrics or textiles.

06:39 The luxurious textiles were representative gifts in the past and usually it was the trade

06:49 between Europe and Asia.

06:51 So Dominika, what are we looking at here?

06:54 Now we have here the Mongolian brocade rope, silk rope from the 14th century.

07:00 It's a very beautiful rope but in poor condition because it's an archaeological textiles.

07:07 And now I start with humidification and flattening of creases and folds which we can see here

07:16 in this place.

07:19 It's very specific brocade rope because brocade is very specific shuttle woven fabric where

07:27 the people used metal threads.

07:31 It means usually gold or silver threads.

07:35 And in this case, especially because brocade textiles are very specific and looks very

07:44 luxurious and in the past were very expensive.

07:49 So it's the most beautiful textile for me.

07:58 The intricate work behind creating a piece of textile makes it more than just a skill.

08:02 In some communities, the art of weaving has been passed down through generations.

08:07 At Design Doha, Qatar Museum's new Biennale, a special exhibition is putting an innovative

08:12 spin on an ancient craft and Laila Humaira got an inside look.

08:20 From the mountains of central Afghanistan to a contemporary art space in Qatar, designer

08:26 Mariam Omar skillfully weaves an ancient handicraft tradition with modernity to create a powerful

08:34 presentation at the M7 Museum.

08:37 I wanted to celebrate the carpet weavers actually that are carrying this centuries old tradition

08:46 of carpet weaving in Afghanistan.

08:48 Mariam spent 10 months closely interacting with the carpet weavers who went on to help

08:54 her create the rugs on display.

08:56 I wanted my inspiration to be the person who is weaving.

09:02 What is it about them, about their weaving hands, about their sounds, their voices, their

09:08 environment, their stories, their personalities, their colors.

09:12 Mariam Omar's weaving poem exhibition transforms this space in the M7 Museum into a world of

09:19 women weavers from Afghanistan's Bamiyan region, welcoming visitors into a sacred space where

09:25 creativity comes alive.

09:28 Weaving Poems was curated by Turquoise Mountain, a non-profit organization founded by King

09:33 Charles in 2006 to revive, preserve and support thousands of families in Afghanistan.

09:41 So Turquoise Mountain supports artisans and we support artisans where their traditions

09:45 and often they are under threat and we do it in any way we need to to make sure that

09:50 they can thrive and that they can pass it on to the next generation.

09:54 The foundation has since expanded to more countries where traditional handicrafts and

09:59 cultural heritage are at risk of disappearing.

10:02 We work in Myanmar, we work in the Levant with Syrians, Jordanians and Palestinians

10:07 from Jordan and from West Bank and we work in Saudi Arabia and so that is so many different

10:13 traditions probably almost a hundred different traditions across those countries.

10:18 Using textiles as a medium of visual arts may be less common but Design Doha believes

10:24 that doesn't mean it can't be as impactful.

10:27 When we think about textiles of course that sits within this larger topic which is craft

10:32 and its relation to design because certainly you can't make great textiles without having

10:36 a lot of knowledge about looms or other textile techniques that go back centuries here in

10:41 the region.

10:42 So what's very interesting is that you have these crafts that are handed down from the

10:45 past that are still vital today and then design pointing the way to the future.

10:50 For Mariam, working with textiles isn't just a thread that connects her to her people,

10:56 country and culture, it's also an art she hopes will transcend borders and time.

11:03 My hope is that the visitors will look at these carpets and they will understand the

11:09 value that carpet weaving, this extremely old tradition of handmade woven carpets still

11:18 carry in today's design scene, in today's interior.

11:22 That each of these carpets will live so much more than us.

11:25 They will over live like many, many generations.

11:29 They will still be alive.

11:31 This value that these people create with their hands, I always say, are not at the time.

11:40 From Madagascan spiders spawning gold silk to Afghanistan's rich carpet weaving tradition,

11:45 we hope you enjoyed this episode.

11:47 Now that's all the time we have for now.

11:49 For more, check out Euronews.com and connect with us through our hashtag.

11:52 Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time on Cut There 365.

11:56 (upbeat music)

11:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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