Sileziany - On the Wind's Wings in the Gallery

Sileziany is a biannale international textile exhibition, developed in 1995 by Mlodziezowy Dom Kultury (Youth House of Culture) in Bytom, Poland and curated by Polish textile artist, Alexsandra Herisz.

An international contest for children and young people, the final exhibition includes selected works by the winners of the young people's contest and professional artists' from different countries. Each edition of Sileziany focuses on a specific theme. For the exhibition in Sirius the theme is "On the Wind's Wings". The works are combined in exhibition to illustrate a wide range of textile working methods and interpretations on the theme with the aim of exchanging and sharing ideas on European Heritage.

This year Sileziany includes the work of Artist, Marie Brett who is based in West Cork and two works by school children from Cobh, County Cork. These works were initially exhibited with the premiere of the exhibition in Poland last year. Also included are artworks from Ukraine, Poland, Slovenia and other contries.

Sileziany is part of an ongoing partnership between MDK and Sirius Arts Centre. To date the two organisations have completed a music project with young people from Cobh Youth Services and now are working as facilitators for Cork Textile Network to provide opportunities for Irish Textile Artists to meet with artists from Poland.

Five artists from MDK were in residence at Sirius for the first two weeks of the exhibition and during their time here they ran a series of workshops with Cobh YMCA Parents and Kids Together, St Raphaels Centre, a local woman's group, children from Norwood School, and an open workshop for adults.

During their visit Aleksadra Herisz and the other Polish artists met with Cork Textile Network for a workshop and discussion to continue building their connection and sharing skills. It is planned that the two groups will meet in Cobh again next year to participate in another skills exchange workshop and that some of the members of Cork Textile Network will then visit MDK in Poland for Sileziany in October 2009 with the aim of organising workshops for young people in Poland and another skills exchange workshop.

Through these skills exchanges the two groups will build a body of work that they hope will be an exhibition in 2010 in Cobh and Poland.
EXHIBITION RUNS UNTIL SUNDAY NOVEMBER 16 - SEE GALLERY HOURS TO THE LEFT OF THIS SITE......