Visiting Artistic Fellow at the Fiber Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art

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So much has happened during my 5 weeks as visiting artist the Fiber Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art — I met inspiring artists, researchers, and students, and encountered the diverse, complex textures of Detroit. This journey has been both artistically and personally transformative.

☘️☘️ Takeaways ☘️☘️
This residency reminded me of the power of artistic exchange — how dialogue, material exploration, and shared curiosity open new ways of thinking and making. I leave Detroit with a renewed sense of how textiles connect bodies, stories, and communities — and with threads of inspiration that will continue to weave through my practice.



I send my gratitude to the Fiber Department:

Thank you Joey Quiñones –incredible artist-in-residence and head of Fiber– for welcoming me so openly into the department.
To all the students — Tracy Ren, Irene Perez, Ivan Flores, Emily Dormier, Maddie Gordon, Julia LeKander, James Baxter, Ashley Rossi, Brianna Markley, Emily Hunt, Nick Cox, Diane Yu, Ruth Xu Huang and Star Seven — thank you for letting me join your CRITs and for sharing your textile worlds. You have all left a deep impression on me ☘️

I’m deeply grateful to Statens Kunstfond for generously supporting this artistic journey, and to Anders Ruhwald for organizing the residency at Dubois Street and the fellowship at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Last but not least Jose Arenivar-Gomez – director of 3583 Dubois St. and an extraordinary ceramic artist – thank you for being such a generous and caring host — for sharing your space, knowledge, and hospitality.


📷 Encountering the architectural beauty of Cranbrook Academy of Art with Elan Schwarts. Photo by Midge W

Sharing artistic research practice across borders

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On my USA travels, I have so far had the privilege of engaging with students and colleagues in both artistic and academic contexts.

At Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Christin Essin kindly arranged a wonderful program of professional and social encounters. I had the pleasure of attending several of her storytelling classes, and she also organized a lecture for students and staff, where I unfolded my research on textile listening(s) — for example, how materials, bodies, and collective practices can generate new ways of sensing and knowing together. As part of the lecture, I introduced a few hands-on exercises. In addition, Alexandra Sargent Capps generously invited me to give a co-sampling workshop in her fashion studio-class.


At the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Camille Martin-Thomsen, kindly introduced me to her colleagues. Abigail Glaum-Lathbury, at the Fashion Department, arranged a talk for students and faculty from the fiber, fashion, and fiber art departments, where I unfolded my artistic practice. Afterwards, I facilitated a short practice-based workshop, connecting my research with hands-on explorations of textile-relational listening spaces.

I am deeply grateful for the inspiring conversations and the opportunity to share and exchange across disciplines and geographies. Encounters like these are vital — they not only disseminate research, but also expand artistic practice through collective dialogue and experimentation.

I am grateful to Anders Ruhwald and Statens Kunstfond that made this trip possible with a generous grant.

BECOMINGS

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BECOMINGS is a textile-relational, participatory artwork in which hands engage in acts of crafting, materials carry embedded stories, and dialogues emerge through shared gestures. The work invites participants into a space of co-crafting, where textile and relation become inseparable.

With the support of The Danish Art Foundation, BECOMINGS was presented as a durational, seven-hour participatory performance at Riga Performance Festival STARPTELPA. The audience was invited to enter the artwork itself—to engage in co-crafting and transformation. Through these collective actions, movements were set in motion: within the materials, within the participants, and within the artwork as a living entity. Small gestures—such as tying a knot—demonstrated the potential of tactile encounters to cultivate textile-relational communities.

Through BECOMINGS, I gather and trace textile-relational stories embedded in the materials. As the textiles cannot speak for themselves, I assume the role of host—sharing their histories, transitions, and transformations. For example, the textiles used in this work formerly appeared as costumes in Forum Humanum (2013), a performance by X-Act/Kitt Johnson. Traces of that performance remain inscribed in the textiles, carrying their performative past into new contexts.

Moreover, the artwork has been shaped by many hands. Those who have participated in its making and crafting leave behind material traces—physical and ephemeral—that remain visible and integral to the evolving form of the artwork. By tracing these narratives, I seek to acknowledge and honour the lands and hands that have made the fibres’ journey possible. This is both a gesture of gratitude and a recognition of the interconnected processes—ecological, social, and artistic—that enable BECOMINGS to continually unfold through participation and relational care.

Keynote: Material Listenings – Traveling in the Borderlands of Costume, Exploring Collective Bodies

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In my keynote Material Listenings – Traveling in the Borderlands of Costume, Exploring Collective Bodies at the Riga Performance Festival Starptelpa conference Embodied Visions: Performativity, Visuality, Materiality (1960s–1980s), I unfolded aspects of the artistic practices of Lygia Clark, Maria Blaisse, and Pauline Oliveros, and shared insights from my ongoing artistic research project Community Walk—a participatory, textile-relational practice that explores how human and nonhuman bodies co-compose fragile, collective constellations. Each iteration of Community Walk invites participants to co-wear a costume and walk together, attuning to one another with a heightened sense of with-ness. Through these shared movements, the work cultivates a polyphonic kind of listening—attentive to difference, risk, tenderness, and transformation. The walks are not choreographed in advance but emerge through soft hosting, relational responsiveness, and a willingness to dwell in the unpredictable.

As part of the keynote, I invited the audience into an artistic intermezzo: a moment of embodied participation in which we co-wore a hand-crocheted textile network. In this shared gesture, we temporarily enacted the fragile and interdependent nature of collective becoming—dwelling together in the porous space between independence and mutual care.

I am grateful to Laine Kristberga for the kind invitation to share my research in this context.

I like to acknowledge Metropolis that hosted the first version of Community Walk (2020) and have invited the participatory version of Community Walk to be part the Performing Landscapes (2025) program.

craft-performance

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Til åbeningen på udstillingen DENNE NYE VERDEN – fortrinsvis tekstil på Lundsgaard Gods lavede jeg en craft-performative event.

Her læste jeg tekster fra et hændværks leksikon fra 1943 pg nyskrevne tekster som en forlængelse på den tekstile historie. Blandt andet gav jeg et bud på ordret FÆLLESSKABELSE, der endnu ikke findes i danske ordbøger.

Som en del af eventen inviterede jeg publikum til at fællesskabe. Tak til dem der deltog.

Tak til kuratoerne af udstillingen Anne Fabrisius Møller, Ingrid Kæseler og Torgny Wilcke for det store arbejde med at skabe en smuk udstilling. Tak for invitation til at udstille værket ComPleat og lave den tekstil performative event.

Scenographic object

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At soprano, vocal performer and researcher Felicita Brusoni 75% intermediate phd seminar (artistic research project A Voice beyond the Edge at Lund University) February 12, 2025 Felicita and dancer/choreographer Valentina Sechi performed RED CARPET. The combination of Felicita’s amazing voice and Valentina’s movements made a strong and powerful performance.

I had knitted the scenographic piece (the red vulva) for the performance.

RED CARPET (2025).

The textile material that the knitted scenographic piece are made in where originally from Kitt Johnson X-act performance STAFET (2017). For STAFET I had also knitted the textiles into a knitted scenographic object (placed on the floor). As Kitt Johnson no longer had room to store the “old” scenographic object she asked if i wanted the material.

STAFET (2017). Photo: Per Morten Abrahamsen

I am so happy these wonderful red textiles now have gain a new life and once again appear on stage in a new scenographic shape in another performance.

I imagine that the textiles still hold traces of Kitt Johnson‘s performance and of the nine wonderful performers that interacted with it in 2017. And now the textile material once again collect traces of the two wonderful performers that interacts with it.

In 2017 where crafted the material into a scenographic object I had no idea of the I years later would re-craft and re-shape it. I makes me proud that these textiles now have a circular life.

At some point when RED CARPET performance no longer is touring the red textile material will return to me. And who knows which life or which shape it it will re-appear in in the future. For now the red textile as a scenographic vulva are with Felicita and Valentina and I wish them and the RED CARPET performance a wonderful life together.

Performance credits:

Red Carpet is a performance that, ranging between present and past, investigates forms of exorcisation of repression in the feminine, understood as a collective archetype, that has always had to devise ways and means to manifest itself and survive in its essence. On the Red Carpet parade images of women, two but numerous, who embody through the use of multiple vocal techniques and corporal utterances, the cries of a “collective trauma”, which suffocates the expression of the self.  Body and voice are the protagonists as they are symbols of both censorship and expression par excellence and are used as a means of individual exploration and collective voicing. On this red carpet, a metaphor for formal public exposure, the singer tries to give voice to those who are told to remain silent and the dancer to give substance to catharsis, in a succession of anarchic fragilities and ferocious desires for survival.

concept Valentina Sechi
created by Felicita Brusoni, Valentina Sechi
scenography Charlotte Østergaard
thanks to the kind permission of Kitt Johnson X-act
light design Carolina Agostini
production Versiliadanza
with the support of MiC, Region Tuscany, Municipality of Florence
thanks to Inter Arts Center, Lund University

Phd defence

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On January 15, 2025 at Bryggeriteatern, Malmö Theatre Academy, Lund University, Sweden I had my doctoral defence. At the defence I had made an exhibition in the theatre space with the connecting costume and the knotted textiles that I had made during the research periode.

Photo: Sergio Gianoli

I wanted my textile companions to surround me – to be present as they speak for themselves – as well as that I wanted the audience to enter my textile world.

As part of my defence I had invited the dancers Alex Berg, Camille Marchadour, Daniel Jeremiah Persson and Josefine Ibsen to perform an improvised version of AweAre – a movement quintet.

Opponent: Dr. Donatella Barbieri, University of the Arts London.   
Chair (Ordförande): professor Sven Bjernstedt, Teaterhögskolan i Malmö.   
Committee (Betygsnämnd): professor Henrik Frisk, dr Anne Louise Bang, dr Rachel Hann and dr Madeline Taylor.    

As written on Lund University’s webpage I am the first person to recieve a doctor degree within the subject of costume. Read more here

Main supervisor: Dr Sofia Pantouvaki – scenographer and Professor of Costume Design at Aalto University, Finland.    
Second supervisor: Dr Camilla Eeg-Tverbakk – dramaturgue and Professor at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.

En tekstil dialog

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På festivalen PÅ TVÆRS vises udstillingen “En tekstile dialog – en udstilling af søstrene Camilla og Charlotte Østergaard” 12-13 april på Dansekapellet.

Fokus i udstilling er forandringen af Camillas tekstile værker. For 10 års siden fik Camila (født med downs syndrom) konstateret alzheimers, hvilket har forandret hendes tekstile sprog. F.eks. begyndte Camilla at sample tekstile teknikker på uventede måder og hendes udtryk blev overraskende vildere. Forandringerne i og af Camillas værker har rørt og inspireret mit virke. Derfor er de få værker, som jeg udstiller, inspireret af og i dialog med Camillas værker og tekstil teknikker.  

Om os, Camilla og Charlotte: Som børn lærte søstrene Camila og Charlotte Østergaard at trykke, væve, sy, strikke mm af deres mor Ehs Østergaard; tekstile designer/kunster. Gennem deres barndom og nu i voksenlivet er tekstilet et fællesskabende element mellem dem. På trods af deres forskellige tilgange til livet og deres forskellige måder at være i verden på er tekstilet deres fælles sprog.
Hvor Camill (født med downs syndrom) hele livet helt intuitiv har udfoldet og udtryktsig igennem tekstilerne og er Charlotte blevet skolet – hun uddannede sig som designer og nu som kunstnerisk forsker. Hvor Camilla har broderet, hæklet, strikket og kniplet brugsting og billeder, har Charlotte designet/skabt beklædning, kostumer og udstillingsobjekter. På trods af søstrenes forskelligartede måder at skabe og udtrykke sig på gennem tekstiler, så har det tekstile sprog altid skabt et stærkt fællesskab og nærvær mellem dem. De deler passionen for tekstilets poetiske og kunstneriske udtryksmuligheder. 

Island connect residency at Sardinia

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10 days Island Connect Residency at Sardegna Teatro in Paulilatino, Sardinia (Italy) with performance artist Linh Le – and we were so lucky to have Ambre Floris as our wonderful host.

Surrounded by water, isolated from mainland, as birds we travel over the waters, we pause and we rest with the island. We wander and wonder, we wonder and wander with the treasures, the secrets and the knowledge that are embedded in island.

Blessed to be invited. As foreign birds the island (its people, its beings, its stories, its places, its vegetation, its knowledge, its food) penetrates our visiting bodies.

And as our journey moves on, our wings are marked with traces of the island, we float and wonder what is archived in our wandering wings and bodies, what will the island traces (that are archived in our bodies) induce in the future.

The theater in Paulilatino is a unique edifice that with its oddness begs for reorientation and rediscovery. It beckons us to delve into hidden spaces, uncover the concealed narratives residing in its nooks and crannies, and decipher the tales it yearns to share with its visitors, be they performers, audience members, or others. As we venture into the vast expanse of theater space, we transform, becoming less of who we were when we entered and more akin to those subterranean beings of Bornholm. We shun the light, embracing the shadows, and defy the norms that seek to constrain the space.

These narratives extend beyond the conventional, embracing non-patriarchal thought patterns and innovative performance styles. Our brief videos serve as an open invitation to fellow explorers, urging them to continue the quest of unveiling the thrilling secrets nestled within this venue in Paulilatino. There, one can unearth myriad untold stories, fresh perspectives, and diverse performance methods, ultimately inspiring the reinvention of the theater space in countless exciting ways.

A tribute to the two Island Connect journeys: Embarking on a journey to explore the islands of Bornholm and Sardinia, we view the worlds through the perspectives and kind invitations of our hosts. Our adventure uncovers enchanting landscapes that hold the rich tapestry of past stories, healing wisdom, and the intricate relationships between humans and the non-human worlds. These experiences transform us into an interconnected collective, blurring the lines of where our creative inspiration originates – for in this entanglement, the source becomes secondary.

What remains unmistakable is the common thread uniting us – the island themselves. Within this entangled web of relationships, we find expansion. Our hosts serve as guides, generously sharing their knowledge of places, landscapes, and stories, and we, in turn, share the profound experience of exploration. As our collective awareness broadens, our conversations intertwine with the very essence of the lands, the flora, the sounds, the people and other beings, the skies, the play of light and darkness, and so much more that often escapes our immediate notice.

In this intertwined existence, we coexist with the myths and the mystical energies inherent to the islands, their landscapes, and the beings that inhabit them, including the mythological creatures like the fairies and the underground denizens “de underjordiske.”

all my relations

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The first weekend of september we were group of people from different places that gathered at the beautiful lands of Gylleboverket (Sweden) to attend “all my relations” – a transdisciplinary workshop explored the ecological potential of performance, performativity, and eco-pedagogy.

At the workshop we worked in smaller groups and shared our practice with each other. It was a weekend that felt like a treat for the soul to enter for example different mediative, drawing and listening practices.

In 2022 I attended the first version of “all my relation” and it was at that time I lost my heart to the place – as guest you you are generously welcomed by Etta and Jona (the host and the caretakers of the land).

I was deeply touched by the weekend and generosity of the people and the land – and I made this little video in gratitude to everyone (human and non-human participants). The sound is recorded early Saturday morning where almost non of the humans attending were awake – it was just the birds that accompanied me.

That Saturday morning I while I was sitting there on a small bench listening to the birds I tried to capture the shadows on my paper as well as what I saw behind my closed eyes.