Going back in history, it turns out that as early as in ancient Egypt tombs contained tapestries. Obviously, for a long time, textiles were intended mainly for practical and decorative use. They were to "warm up" interiors, both in a literal as well as metaphorical sense, i.e. aesthetically. However, at times textiles were made for more than just practical use. This was the case with the Bayeux Tapestry - the 70-metre long canvas depicting the Conquest of England by William the Conqueror. This half-a-metre wide embroidered cloth depicts the scenes from everyday life in Normandy, but, above all, the most significant battle of the 11th century - the Battle of Hastings.

In the second half of the 14th century in Europe, the production of tapestries was flourishing. The tapestry considered to be the oldest one from that period is "Jesus Presented in the Temple" from circa 1350, made in Arras or Paris, and now in possession of Musée de Cinquantenaire in Brussels. At that time, the craftsmen from France and Flanders became the most well-known makers of Gobelin tapestries. They received orders from all European countries, and in Poland, till this day, such tapestry is called 'arras'. It was made based on a cardboard painting made using the en grisaille technique, and hence the decision about the colours was taken by the makers of the tapestry. They had only six colours at their disposals, and colour nuances were obtained by crosshatching. The Wawel collection of 142 Gobelin tapestries is the best evidence of the high quality of the products from the 16th-century craftsmen's workshops in Flanders, where the traditions of the predecessors had been continued.

A Polish element in the textile history is undeniably the weaving of "kontusz sash", which was a sash worn by a nobleman to compass a kontusz (a robe-like garment). These sashes were made in special craftsmen's workshops (Pol. pensjarnia), the most well-known of which were in Słuck, Kobyłka or Lipków. Those remarkable items which have rich woven patterns, often with a golden or silver thread , can currently be viewed at the exhibition entitled "Pas kontuszowy - recepcja formy, recepcja mitu" (The Kontusz Sash - Reception of the Form, Reception of the Myth), in the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź.

"As soon as they became part of the old-Polish attire, they began to play a very important role: they were indicators of social status and wealth of their owners, they revealed their owners' political views, and they were and still are perceived as a symbol/sign of the culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Today Polish kontusz sashes are the pride of museums and private collectors. Thanks to their courtesy and the collection of the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, it was possible to organize such a huge exhibition presenting the 300-year-old fascination with the narrow strip of cloth whose origins are in India and Persia," writes Małgorzata Markowska-Markiewicz, curator of the exhibition. Polish craftsmen's workshops were at the peak of their development in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The following century brought about great changes in the production of textiles. Machines were introduced, and mass-produced Jacquard textiles imitated French handicraft products. Unfortunately, this led to the disappearance of craftsmen's workshops, and manually woven pieces were hardly made. The change in attitude towards handicraft, including textiles, happened in at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Trying to counteract the tacky products which were mass-produced by machines, the founders of Art Nouveau returned to manual weaving.

Handicrafts started to be considered works of art, and unique textiles were appreciated again. New techniques were introduced, among others: batik, appliqué design and printed cloth. New associations were set up with the goal to popularize forgotten crafts. For example, in Poland there were: the Polish Applied Art, Cracow Workshops and, later, the Artists' Cooperative - "ORDER". Traditional crafts ceased to be merely part of folk art and became to be taught in art academies.

Nevertheless, until the 60s of the 20th century, textiles, even those unique ones, remained on the margin of artistic activities. It was then that, thanks to creative experiments, textiles ceased to have merely decorative character and became a separate branch of art. The works exhibited at the Lausanne Biennial presented a non-traditional approach to textiles, and blurred the clear borderlines between textiles, painting and sculpture.

To a large extent, these changes were brought about by Polish artists, such as Wojciech Sadley and Magdalena Abakanowicz. Textiles no longer had to be woven on the loom; they no longer had to be of a rectangular shape; instead they could be special constructions made of textiles i.e. "anti-textiles" made from strings, nets and wire netting. Today nobody is surprised to see textiles exhibited amidst paintings or sculptures in an art gallery or a museum.

The Bayeux Tapestry, 11thc.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Fleeing_bayeux_tapestry.png

Arras Tapestry from the Wawel Collection, 16th c.
http://www.wk.pl/foto/f208.jpg

Kontusz Sash (from Słuck); http://www.oss.wroc.pl/wystawy/obrazki_jezior/pas_slucki.jpg

Kilim Carpet, the 20s-30s of the 20th century; http://www.biurka.com.pl/skrypt/images/DSCN0265.JPG

Magdalena Abakanowicz, Abakan turkusowy (Turquoise Abakan; sculpture made of woven fibres), 1969
http://www.malarze.com/obrazy/abakanowicz-abakan.jpg

Artur Zaguła