Museum De Lakenhal has asked ten artists and designers to realise a series of special commissions, as a contribution to the museum renewal. One of them was the textile designer Aleksandra Gaca. Inspired by the form language of De Stijl, Gaca produced ‘ContraFabric’, a refined and eye-catching textile wall covering for the auditorium.
As part of the redesign of the Museum De Lakenhal, Aleksandra Gaca was commissioned to design a wall covering for the new auditorium. Gaca was inspired in this process by artist Theo van Doesburg (1884-1931), who founded the famous international magazine De Stijl from Leiden a hundred years ago. She took the work ‘Contra composition in dissonants XVI’ from 1925, which shows the characteristic diagonal lines of Van Doesburg in addition to the primary colours of De Stijl, as the starting point for her textile design. She created a new fabric by isolating, repeating and placing parts of this composition in a new rhythm, and then performing this in a subtle interplay of yarns.
Since Gaca was asked to create a wall covering the aim was to create a fabric with very thin and fine quality. The final product is a single layer weave. Interestingly, this is very different from her usual work, which is often focused on 3D and rough structures. To achieve the desired subtle effect, Gaca focused on searching for interesting bindings and weaves instead of colours. The final result is composed of two colours only, one shiny and one matte. Another important aspect was to create a fire-resistant fabric since it would be placed in a public space. Therefore, the yarns used for this production are all Trevira CS quality, as is the warp.
Born in Poland, textile designer Gaca (Lods, 1969) studied at the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague (Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, Den Haag). She specialises in the design and production of innovative fabrics that have an acoustic effect as well as an aesthetic value. Gaca's work is characterized by abstract architectural concepts such as order, rhythm and repetition. She is known for her textile translations of abstract architectural concepts such as ordering, rhythm and repetition. Its yarn structures are, for example, based on the lines of building structures such as steel skeletons, masonry or tile grids. She is experimenting with self-developed bindings and special yarns, resulting in a series of intriguing fabrics at the intersection of art, design and architectural design. Her work always shows a nice balance between craftsmanship and innovation.
Spits ovaal met vlindermotief
Theodoor Nieuwenhuis
Spits ovaal met gestilleerde bloem en blad motieven
Theodoor Nieuwenhuis
Reception Wall - Post Building London
AHMM Architects in collaboration with Ismini Samanidou
Spits ovaal met gestilleerde bloem en blad motieven
Theodoor Nieuwenhuis
Tapestry for Museum De Lakenhal
Ankie Stoutjesdijk
