Hemp – back to the future
Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23 Association, The Textiles Museum in Băița and the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, are pleased to invite you to join ”Hemp – Back to the Future” international conference, on June 9, at 12:30 (GMT+3), and June 10, at 12:00 (GMT+3), online, via Zoom & on our official Facebook page – Rowmania.
The international event aims to put on the public agenda the value of hemp traditions for the sustainable development and resilience of rural communities.
The conference gathers experts in hemp from all over the globe, together with hemp promoters in Romania:
Florica Zaharia (Romania, Conservator Emerita of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Director and Co-owner of the Textile Museum in Băița)
Robert Clarke (USA, International Hemp Association, independent researcher – traditional hemp fibre production)
Git Skoglund (Sweden, independent researcher – hemp in the West-Northern European countries)
Minsun Hwang (textile conservator The Met, New York – Hemp in Korea)
Teodor Frolu (Romania, architect, creative industries entrepreneur, co-founder of Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23 Association)
Meet the speakers!
Robert Clarke
Rob Clarke has devoted his career to documenting relationships between Cannabis plant and human cultures worldwide including some of the last active hemp farmers. Rob has written many peer-reviewed articles based on his fieldwork and co-authored “Cannabis: Evolution and ethnobotany” (2013). Rob is co-founder of BioAgronomics Group, an international consulting company in California and serves as Projects Manager for the International Hemp Association. Rob’s presentation will touch upon differing strategies for hemp fiber and seed cultivation and processing among traditional Eurasian cultures and as they are practiced today.
Florica Zaharia
Dr. Florica Zaharia is Conservator Emerita of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Director and Co-owner of the Muzeul Textilelor. This is a private textile museum with pieces collected in Romania and worldwide by her and her family during the last five decades. Dr. Zaharia has a M.A. with a specialization in tapestry and textile structure and design, and a Ph.D. in Visual Arts with a focus on textile materials and technologies, and their impact on artifacts’ aesthetic qualities. She earned her academic degrees from the National University of Art Nicolae Grigorescu in Bucharest.
Git Skoglund
Mrs. Git Skoglund is a Swedish textile historian, author and exhibition producer. Which has since the early 1990s focused on the plant Cannabis in her research. As well, she has a broad knowledge about the modern industrial hemp and she produced both textiles and food of hemp. As a fellow of Agnes Geijer´s Nordic Textile Research Foundation she organizes research projects about ancient hemp textiles and other fiber plants. The multidisciplinary research combines fiber analysis with the perspective of horticulture in the field of textile history.
Minsun Hwang
Minsun Hwang has worked at The Metropolitan Museum of Art since 2002. She is responsible for Chinese textiles and costumes and Korean textiles from the Department of Asian Art in the Museum’s textile collection. Minsun earned her M.A. in Museum Studies: Costume and Textile Conservation at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Her particular interest is in the production of hemp, ramie, and silk in China, Korea, and Japan, most of which were funded by travel grants and the Asian Cultural Council (Nobuko Kajitani Fellowship recipient).
Teodor Frolu
Arch. Teodor Frolu is a successful entrepreneur in creative industries, co-managing DC Communication, a leading Romanian communication agency. During last 10 years, he developed, with world sports legend Ivan Patzaichin, an innovative model for revival of local techniques & uses of natural resources through PATZAIKIN brand. The artisanal products developed under the PATZAIKIN ecosystem highlight the organic connection between human and nature. The project inspires Teodor in initiating the proposal of the first hemp cluster in Romania. He found inspiration in the benefits generated by the small “production chain” in traditional Romanian households.
Agenda
Wednesday, June 9th
HEMP – BACK TO THE FUTURE International conference (English)
12:30-12:45 p.m. Welcome remarks, introducing the hemp forum idea
| 12:45-2:35 p.m. Session 1 – Hemp-traditional technologies in Europe and Asia
Hemp in Romania |
|
| 12:45-2:00 | Robert C. Clarke, USA, International Hemp Association, independent researcher—Keynote speaker
Traditional hemp fiber cultivation and processing across Eurasia |
| 2:00-2:20 | Florica Zaharia, Romania, Conservator Emerita of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Director and Co-owner of the Textile Museum in Băița, România
Traditional hemp fibre technology in Romania |
| 2:20-2:35 | Questions |
2:35-2:50 Coffee Break
| 2:50-4:00 p.m. Session 2 – Hemp in West-North Europe
Hemp in Korea |
|
| 2:50-3:15 | Git Skoglund, Sweden, independent researcher
Hemp in the West-Northern European countries |
| 3:15-3:45 | Minsun Hwang, textile conservator The Met, New York
Hemp in Korea |
| 3:45-4:00 | Questions |
| 4:00-4:15 | Short film on the hemp exhibition – work of Mircea Cantor, Oláh Gyárfás and Muzeul Textilelor |
4:15-4:30 Coffee Break
| 4:30-5:30 | Panel discussion |
Thursday, June 10th
LAUNCH OF CANEPARO – FIRST HEMP CLUSTER IN ROMANIA (Romanian)
| 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. | Session 3 – Hemp in Craft, Industry, Ecosystem, present and future
Launch of Caneparo cluster, press conference The initiative of the first hemp cluster in Romania will be launched in the presence of: cluster members, representatives of national and local administrations. |
Hemp in arts
Documentary art exhibition
3 – 27 June. National Romanian Peasant Museum. Hemp – Back to the future documentary art exhibition.
On 3 June, ”Hemp – back to the future” was premiered in Romania – an integrated event dedicated to hemp – a versatile resource connecting tradition and top contemporary ecotechnology. Conceived as a 360 perspective on hemp, the exhibition introduces the audience to the long tradition of hemp utilization, its presence in several cultures around the world, and its revival in the context of global contemporary interest in sustainable design and circular economy, with the potential of positioning Romania in the top of these trends.
Mircea Cantor, winner of the Marcel Duchamp Prize, Florica Zaharia, Conservator Emerita of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Director and Co-owner of the Textile Museum in Băița, România, Oláh Gyárfás, contemporary artist and designer of the PATZAIKIN brand, together with Teodor Frolu invite us to explore, through an exercise of contemporary art combined with ethnographic research, hemp from its essential role as a natural resource placed in the broad context of circular economy and development of rural communities in Romania and around the Globe.
The multidisciplinary art installations are at their core extensive documentation on the cultivation, production, and trade of hemp, the history of plant cultivation in Romania, confronted with its current uses in other regions of the world. The curatorial concept, by Teodor Frolu, is based on the intertwining of traditional and contemporary practices, harmonizing the artistic presentation of traditional uses of the plant with innovation and completing the exhibition with examples of industries and areas of the globe where this plant is economically exploited for local growth and community welfare.
The exhibition is offered by Unicredit Bank and organized by Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23 Association, in partnership with DC Communication, the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, the Textile Museum in Băița, The Institute, as part of the satellite exhibitions participating in Romanian Design Week under the theme Together. The exhibition is part of the cultural project ”Hemp – back to the future” co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration in Romania (AFCN), with the support of Bucharest City Hall through Expo Arte Cultural Center and the French Institute in Romania. Media partners: Radio Guerrilla, Gala Societății Civile, Modernism.ro, Zeppelin Magazine.
Cânepa – înapoi în viitor
Asociația Ivan Patzaichin – Mila 23, Muzeul Textilelor din Băița și Muzeul Național al Țăranului Român vă invită la prima ediție a Forumului „Cânepa în secolul XXI”, pe 9 iunie. de la 12:30, și pe 10 iunie, de la 12:00, online, prin Zoom sau pe pagina noastră de Facebook – Rowmania.
