Absolute Superstructure – Disentangling a Mass of Knots

#design #textile #artisticresearch

"Absolute Superstructure - Disentangling a Mass of Knots" examines nets as material and metaphor, exploring entanglement, power, and alternative kinships through collaborative textile and conceptual practice.

In our interconnected yet fragmented world, we are constantly entangled in overlapping networks—digital, social, ecological, and political. These nets both sustain and constrain us, offering bonds of connection while also reinforcing hierarchies and exclusions. At times nets protect and nurture; at others they entrap. To ask what is enough in this context means questioning how nets are woven and who ties their knots. It involves considering how they can be reimagined as frameworks that reveal resilient ties, expose power relations, and provide alternative forms of kinship.

During this five-day workshop, participants will engage both theoretically and practically with the politics and poetics of nets. Nets will be studied historically and culturally—from fishing communities to activist movements to algorithmic infrastructures—uncovering how they can function simultaneously as enclosures and openings. Working with diverse textile and non-textile materials, the participants will explore how nets shape flows of power, intimacy, and belonging. Through hands-on experimentation, they will create structures in a variety of forms—physical, conceptual, and speculative—investigating new patterns of entanglement.

The emphasis of this workshop lies in collaborative work, inviting the participants to create a single tangible artwork together while also pursuing their individual research. Two field trips and studio visits will complement the workshop, offering participants insight into the contemporary art scene in Berlin.

Schedule

Day 1:
- Introduction of the group
- Excerpts reading and discussions in groups
- Participants present their own research. Start of material analysis and hands-on experiments

Day 2:
- Field Trip/Studio Visit
- Hands-on material experiments and collaborative work
- Reflections, discussions and feedback in group

Day 3:
- Field Trip/Studio Visit
- Hands-on material experiments and collaborative work
- Reflections, discussions and feedback in group

Day 4:
- Hands-on material experiments and collaborative work

Day 5:
- Finalisation of the workshop, presentations and feedback

Justina Monceviciute is a Lithuanian-born visual artist based in Berlin. Alongside her artistic practice, she lectures at various universities and leads workshops on textiles in multi-dimensional contexts. Justina’s art practice operates at the intersection of sculpture, textiles, and installation. She works with solid materials such as clay, porcelain, and glass and applies textile systems to explore questions of identity, transformation, and fluidity.

Topics of women and labour, resistance in the context of political and social marginalization, and a postdisciplinary approach form the conceptual foundation of her work.

www.justinamonceviciute.com 
https://www.instagram.com/justinamonceviciute/