Singer
Singer is an interactive artistic installation that
includes sewing machines, audio and video. The project is accompanied by the
publication Singer: A Newsletter for Closed Textile Factories in Slovenia.
The name of the project comes originally from the well-known brand of sewing
machine, but it also plays with the meaning of the word as "one who
sings." The idyllic transformation of a sewing machine into an instrument
that literally "sings" at the touch of a (woman's) hand is based on
the fact that singing would very often accompany women at their work; singing
is, moreover, a common metaphor for the whirr of machinery. Song brings rhythm
to the body and helps to humanise the process of production.
The practice of making your own clothes was once a fundamental part of the
female gender role. At one time, clothes "grew" in Slovene fields:
our foremothers would sow flaxseed, weave cloth, and make dresses. Later,
clothes came from local factories, where our mothers went to work. Today, the
clothes we wear carry the brand names of international companies and are made
for us by women and children in unknown East European and Asian workshops. This
is where cheap labour can now be found, just as in the fifties it could be
found in Slovene textile factories. The intimate connection we once had with
clothing has been overtaken by the realities of consumerism. Broken now is the
thread that tied us through our clothes to the fields and factories around us.
Thread may be slender, but it is strong and durable, a metaphor of time and
life. This is why, in the mythologies of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, we
find the image of the spider that spins the thread of time and the almost
sacred role of spinstresses and weaver-women. As Dragica Nenadić, a modern
textile worker, summed it up, "Something of the human soul is woven into
every thread. Clothes are not dead things."
The sewing machine stands at the end of the line in the handicraft tradition of
clothes-making, but no longer is it part of that cultural narrative. The
machine that first promised, and also made possible, economic independence for
women, has led millions of women all around the world into a future of poorly
paid work. For many of Slovenia's textile workers, even this story has come to
an end.
Marija Mojca Pungerčar
About the authors
Borut Savski researches the world of "aesthetic
machines"-algorithmic autonomous electronic devices that are
non-functional outside the aesthetic realm. In other words, he builds
"instruments" that make mistakes. The mistake is actually a sign of
autonomy, "wilfulness", and non-functionality. The only field open to
non-functionality is, of course, art. And even more concretely, amorphous
sound. He has been presenting his aesthetic machines at Kapelica Gallery in
Ljubljana since 1999.
Maša Gedrih is a freelance journalist, whose work
frequently appears in the Slovene media.
Chorus of Women Textile Workers
The time when singing was once a part of the social and
cultural life of nearly every Slovene factory is long gone. This is especially
true of the textile industry, since the decimated working collectives have
little reason to celebrate. Conditions in the textile industry are unstable and
extremely susceptible to public interference. According to a secretary from the
Slovene textile company Mura, the workers need to be left with their dignity
intact: "Now is not the right time for these things. If anything changes,
we will celebrate then."
The art installation Singer deals with the lay-off of female workers in
the textile industry. Its sewing machines create the context for an
extra-special live performance: a chorus made up of laid-off and retired women
textile workers will bring a unique dimension to the show's opening at the
Slovene Ethnographic Museum, presenting us with an image quite different from
those angry, disappointed and desperate faces we have seen in the media in
recent years. We are delighted that they can add their cultural contribution
and vibrant character to this year's Festival.
Ten singers from Mirna Peč graciously accepted our invitation and have come
together to form the United Slovene Women Textile Workers' Chorus. We extend
our thanks to them.
May their voices be heard!
Marija Mojca Pungerčar
Author: Marija Mojca Pungerčar
Sound design: Borut Savski
Research collaborator: Maša Gedrih
Singers: Anica Slak, Ivanka Rozman, Franja Avsec, Milena Verbič, Anica Parkelj,
Ivanka Kastelic, Janja Klemenčič, Anica Galič, Vere Primc, Marina Rajšelj
Organisation: City of Women
In co-operation with: Slovene Ethnographic Museum
Financially supported by: The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia;
The City Council of Ljubljana, Department of Culture.
Sewing machines provided by: The Slovene Technological Museum
With the support of: Kmetija pri Pustotniku
