Con un filo – Tra arte e geometria (With a thread – between art and geometry)

The magic of colors, the charm of mathematics that takes shape, the transformative power of creativity to revitalize a historical and cultural heritage symbol of the city. “With a thread – between art and geometry”, an emotional didactic project of textile art, is all this and more.

Inserted among the appointments of the Science in the City Festival of ESOF 2020, the initiative will take shape at the covered market in Trieste from 20 August to 7 September 2020 through the installation of a collective work created thanks to the use of simple textile techniques, within everyone’s reach, which will allow you to play with mathematical sequences and make you understand and tactfully experiment abstract geometric concepts.

The project is directed by the Trieste Picknitartcafè cultural association, created to promote textile activity in all its forms as an expression of art and culture, and already known in the city for various initiatives, including the preparation of the scenographic and flamboyant crochet blanket that completely covered Piazza Unità in 2015, nominating itself for the Guinness Book of Records as the largest ever made in the world.

Inspired by the work of mathematics professor Daina Taimina (Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes) of Cornell University, the collective work – conceived this time to celebrate Trieste as a City of Science – will mix textile teaching with geometric mathematical notions, aiming to playfully involve the public, as already happened during the Sissa Student Day on February 13th, during one of the Tactile Mathematics Seminars proposed to students to test and perfect the project. The installation will be created with the assembly of complex shapes – such as pseudo spheres, hyperbolic curves, helical surfaces – oversized and reproduced with bright colors, to amplify their aesthetic and emotional impact.

In conjunction with the exhibition hours, the associates will be available to visitors for themed meetings and workshops aimed at students, artists, lovers of art, textile art, creative craftsmanship, photography and, in general, anyone willing to approach in a curious, playful and participatory way to the proposal.

Through the use of a thread alone, those who will try their hand at hyperbolic creations will be spontaneously predisposed to the production of shapes similar to those found in nature, such as algae, corals, flowers or plant elements. On the one hand, the general public will thus be able to practice in a fun way by approaching abstract and only apparently distant geometric concepts; on the other hand, those who theoretically deal with science and mathematics can instead experience an emotional impact in the experience of the three-dimensional and creative manipulation of forms.

The location of the work along the helical staircase of the Covered Market in Trieste is also intended to be a tribute to women, in particular to Sara Davis who generously donated the building to the “venderigole triestine”, but also to the architect Camillo Iona , who designed the structure with ingenuity, combining decoration, innovation and functionality in perfect balance.

Finally, the initiative also has a charitable purpose: the proceeds from the sale of the artifacts, which can be purchased with a free offer, will go to support the AIAS Italian Association of Spastic Assistance of Trieste