‘Networking’ is often seen as a way to get ahead: meeting the right people and opening doors for yourself. In this workshop, we invite participants to rethink this idea through collective weaving. Together, we build an ever-growing woven structure, a network that symbolises connection. As the work evolves, an oberih takes shape, a Ukrainian word for a protective object. You will learn simple weaving techniques and work with a variety of textile materials. Everyone contributes to a collective artwork and experiences how individual actions come together to create a larger whole. The process will be documented in a time-lapse video, making the growth of the work visible.

Collect4Ukraine is an Amsterdam-based grassroots network that emerged in 2022 as a direct response to Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine. A group of friends brought together art, academic expertise, and existing networks to support people and animals affected by the war. Collect4Ukraine sees art as something rooted in collective engagement; works are created through the participation of many, rather than by a single individual maker. Through workshops in drawing, weaving, sewing, and cooking, they connect displaced people and the wider Amsterdam community. These mediums require no training or shared language, serving as a form of embodied communication. In this way, they connect to long-standing traditions of collective, often women-led artistic production, in which textile work has served as both a survival strategy and a form of resistance.

Photo: Christopher Pugmire