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Round table covered edge to edge with photographs, most stitched with colourful embroidered thread, seen from above
Black-and-white photo of three people toasting drinks, green spiral thread stitched over the woman's hair
Black-and-white photo of a Trabant car parked by a stone wall, yellow-green embroidered stems and leaves stitched above it
Scattered postcards on a table, the topmost showing a boy receiving flowers ringed by a yellow embroidered sunburst
Scattered postcards on a table, one showing an illuminated corridor stitched with concentric yellow rings
Three copies of the same photo of a woman at a sewing machine, each stitched with a different coloured thread pattern radiating from her head
Hand using an awl to perforate a black-and-white cityscape photo pinned to blue card, before stitching
Hands lifting a tracing overlay off a stitched black-and-white cityscape photo mounted on orange card
Hands holding an inverted photo of a car with its wheels in the air, stitching a yellow starburst with a needle
Photo of a woman at a sewing machine mounted on orange card, pink wavy lines stitched radiating from her head
Hand holding up a finished embroidery of a red, white and blue eight-petal flower stitched above a woman at a sewing machine
Scattered finished pieces on a table, including an orange-spiralled sewing machine photo, an apartment tower with red hearts, a boy with a dog, and an elderly couple in a carriage
Finished pieces on a table, including a fountain statue photo with a brown and yellow stitched sunburst, and a couple embracing photo with a colourful stitched star beside a name card reading Irma Castillo
Close-up of a high-rise apartment tower photo with a green spiral vine and red and pink hearts stitched around it
Close-up of a fountain monument photo with a brown zigzag fringe and yellow sunburst stitched over the statue and sky
Black-and-white photo of a woman pushing a pram on a tree-lined street, a yellow starburst stitched over her head
Black-and-white photo of a cable car pylon and vintage cars, colourful geometric shapes stitched over the scene
Sepia photo of half-timbered houses on a street, a rainbow arc and green pompom trees stitched above the rooftops
Black-and-white photo of a fountain in front of high-rise buildings, coloured rosettes stitched into the spray and a pink outline stitched around one tower
Black-and-white photo of a bookshelf-lined room with a vase of flowers, a small red and yellow shape stitched onto a basket on the table
Hand holding a photo of two figures walking along a shoreline, vertical navy and pink dashed lines stitched down the image
Close-up of hands stitching green thread onto a small illustrated postcard of masked figures
Vintage postcard of a woman holding a flag with Kunst mit uns embroidered on it in yellow chain stitch, the flag redone in red stitched triangles with a pink tassel fringe
Green and pink banner reading Workshop schau rein mach mit, held up by a person mostly hidden behind it
Embroidered photographs created by workshop participants
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§ II — About this event

Die Fäden in der Hand halten.

The sessions ran at the Albertinum across 2024, as part of the ostZone series, a public forum alongside "Revolutionary Romances? Globale Kunstgeschichten in der DDR," an exhibition on global art history in the GDR. Each session was open to a new group. Participants worked with photographs provided for the occasion: images from the museum's collection connected to the themes of the exhibition, and photographs of everyday life in the GDR from the personal archive of Dr. Verena Böll, the Kultur Aktiv organizer behind the program.

Each participant took a photograph and a needle and stitched into it, adding what the image brought up for them: a feeling, a memory, what a person in the picture meant. The photographs didn't stay flat. For the workshop program, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden had commissioned Kultur Aktiv e.V., who went looking for an artist personally connected to the histories the exhibition engaged with, and approached Bela. Two of the three public sessions included Montserrat Butter as a witness: a Chilean woman who had arrived in Dresden as a political exile in 1980. After the first two public sessions, the Albertinum invited Bela to lead a fourth, for museum staff.

The workshop didn't end with the exhibition: as Photo Embroidery, it travels, and can be booked by museums, libraries, and companies.

§ III — Venue

Albertinum,
Tzschirnerplatz 2, 01067 Dresden

§ III.B · Getting here
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