Catalogue Dearest Y

Ground Bindings (Nada, Gizela, Tereza) includes three handwoven textiles, a wall print, and three yarn labels. The project is based on research on women’s labour in the textile industry in the former Yugoslavia. It weaves together stories of three maternal ancestors with the history of three types of yarns. Weaving generally relates to the feminine and maternal identity. Its exchange value has been a means for survival for many families worldwide, including Benjocki’s mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, who lived through difficult periods with political upheavals and warfares.

The work is produced with a collection of white yarns that the artist received from her mother, who inherited them from her ancestors. These yarns were made in leading textile factories in the former Yugoslavia between the 1960s and ’80s: ‘Sloga’ in Zrenjanin (present-day Serbia), ‘Iteks’ in Ilok (present-day Croatia), and ‘Teteks’ in Tetovo (present-day North Macedonia). They thus become an allegory for the changing geopolitical reality and identity of the same land.

Benjocki sees weaving as a way to suspend time, contemplate it, and eventually give it a physical shape. She started working with a loom out of a desire to restore the connection with the past of her female ancestors, as well as with the history of her hometown and motherland.

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