Marijn van Kreij | TextielMuseum, Tilburg (NL) | Bauhaus’ 100-year anniversary

In 2019 Marijn van Kreij took part in a commissioned work for the TextielMuseum in Tilburg (NL), on the occasion of the Bauhaus‘ 100th anniversary.

In 1928, Gunta Stölzl wove one of her most famous tapestries, 5 Chöre. For Marijn van Kreij, this tapestry, or to be precise, reproductions of it and her design sketches, formed the basis of this collection commission. He took an existing image as his starting point and continued to work on it. “When studying and reproducing such an image, differences naturally arise,” he said of this approach. “It is a form of ‘editing’ someone else’s work. Consciously or unconsciously, you leave things out or change the colours. These differences and variations create the opening or thinking space I’m looking for. Because I took fragments from 5 Chöre and repeated them in different ways in my designs, an exercise arises that hopefully evokes the same kind of space or delay.” He used a computer to reproduce the fragments of cloth, including their irregularities. He was particularly interested in the sense of rhythm and colour in the original and the effective use of the different weaves. The fabric was also used for cushion covers, a reference to the Bauhaus ideal of eliminating the boundary between fine and applied art.