Geotextile, hand-stitched and machine-sewn, 2024, 73 × 103 cm

Artwork Geotextile, hand-stitched and machine-sewn (2024, 73 × 103 cm) by Miroslava Klesalová, in which the stitching depicts a landscape.

Landscape Reconstruction / Textile / Object / Graphic Art

The central theme of this cycle is personal memory (as well as historical or social memory) within the context of cultural landscape and its dynamics.

The starting point of the work is the collectivization of agriculture in the 1950s, which violently affected not only the character of the landscape but also the social structure of the place — the artist’s native region in southwestern Bohemia. Individual plots were consolidated into continuous fields, a condition that remained unchanged even after the restitution of agricultural land following 1989.

The transformation of these conditions is further developed into a tangible, sewn, handcrafted object made from geotextiles and vector computer graphics. The structure of the work draws not only from the visuality of cadastral maps and their geometric interpretation, but also from elements of human existence. The overall visual concept is based on the significance of handcraft and material. Layering and process play an essential role. The character of the work — both textile and graphic — reflects a rationalized, technicist approach to land management.