Au fil des tapestries

A journey into Rotterdam Kunsthal’s “Extra Large” exhibition

Admiring “Women at their toilette” by Picasso. Picture by Marco de Swart.

While the French word fil means “sewing thread”, the expression au fil doesn’t have a precise English translation: it designates something happening “over” a certain period, “in the course of” an action or event.

With this article, it’d like to take you with me au fil the numerous fil-made beautiful tapestries I’ve encountered at the impressive exhibition of the Rotterdam contemporary art museum Kunsthal, “Extra Large, Tapestries from Picasso and Le Corbusier to Louise Bourgeois”.

The purpose of this exhibition? To present a large-scale retrospective of impressive tapestries, from the end of the First World War to nowadays, and show us how surprisingly modern this traditional art medium is.

How is that possible? Dive with me into the exhibition to find out!

Artworks smelling like croissants

The earlier little French lesson was not only related to the fact that I love promoting my French culture, but also to the content of the exhibition itself.

Indeed, most of the tapestries presented were crafted at the Manufacture des Gobelins, a Parisian prestigious institute specialized in tapestry-making since the 17th century. The designs of…