KSL Study Center (Finland) and Elena Polzer (Berlin, Germany) welcome you to mend together, connect and talk about craftivism in international online event! To participate, you need a thread, needle, fabric or a clothing that you want to repair or embroider on, or you can choose the craft yourself, for which you have materials at home.

(Lue suomenkielinen tiivistelmä artikkelin lopusta – Summary in Finnish below)

Free online workshop takes place on Zoom in Tuesday evening 21.3.2023.

  • Finnish time 18:30-20:30
  • German time 17:30-19:30
  • Please check the time in your own country to match the Finnish time: Helsinki (UTC +2) 6:30-8:30 pm.

Workshop will be held in English.

Sign up for the workshop

Sign up for the workshop with this online form by 13.3.

We follow the KSL study center’s principles of a safer space in the workshop. Read more about the priciples on our website.

What is craftivism?

Craftivism is a form of activism in which crafts are used for commenting on social issues.

Elena Polzer

Elena Polzer istuu keinutuolissa sylissään käsityönä tehdyt eläimet. Huoneessa on paljon tekstiilityötarvikkeita ja seinillä kirjontatöitä.

”My current practice as a fibre artist currently focuses on two main aspects. One is the use of reclaimed, recycled fabrics from previously loved clothing, as well as the incorporation of further recycled materials such as handspun paper twine and the plastic netting that fruits and vegetables are sold in.

The other is to hold space for people to learn and engage with mending.

Building relationships with material and people

Crafting, sewing, and especially mending together allow people to experience community via the concentrated involvement with a basic skill that also improves everyday life. While building a relationship with a material that every single person has intimate contact with – fabric, clothes and textiles – and in the process of mending, people also develop ties to others in the room.

Due to the calming experience of working side-by-side and sharing gained expertise, space is created that allows for a gentle approach to also sharing other life stories by encouraging attendees to speak about the clothes and objects they are working on.

Gentle empowerment and resistance

The goal of my mending sessions is not to provide a mending service, but rather to provide a space of gentle empowerment and over time also companionship that encourages approaching the mending of clothes as an act of resistance to predominant structures of consumerism.

Mending is a craft that resists simplified concepts of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ways of doing, instead giving preference to mindfully sitting with the wealth of color, texture, tactile sensations that cloth has to offer.

Welcome to the workshop

It is important that the sessions are at least 2-3 hours long to provide enough time for attendees to lean into a sense of safety in the space and the activity and to encourage confidence in acting on individual desires of how, why and at what pace to proceed with the act of mending the object at hand.

In this sense, I also hope to strengthen attendees’ general trust in their own inherent abilities to make grounded, authentic decisions in their everyday lives.

By their nature, live mending sessions are open to all bodies as they incorporate the ability to adjust to specific tactile needs or differences of perception.

 

Illustration: Siiri Hirsiaho
Photo: Riina Näsi

Suomeksi

KSL-opintokeskus ja berliiniläinen Elena Polzer järjestävät yhdessä verkkotyöpajan, jossa paikkaamista ja parsimista tutkitaan käsityöaktivismin muotona. Ilmainen työpaja järjestetään Zoomissa, ja tarvitset mukaan neulan, lankaa, kangasta tai korjattavan/kirjailtavan vaatteen. Voit tehdä myös jotain muuta käsityötä, johon sinulla on kotona tarvikkeet.

Englanninkielinen työpaja järjestetään tiistaina 21.3.2023 klo 18:30-20:30.

Ilmoittaudu mukaan verkkolomakkeella.

Lue suomenkielinen artikkeli Elena Polzerista verkkosivullamme.

Tutustu käsityöaktivismiin verkkosivullamme.