Fueron tejidos. Teresa Lanceta

The National Archaeological Museum is hosting a unique proposal from 19 May to 15 November by the artist Teresa Lanceta, winner of the 2023 National Prize for Plastic Arts. They were woven is presented as an unusual project that seeks to reconstruct the past through textile practice.

Teresa Lanceta, a PhD in Art History with a well-established career in institutions such as MoMA and the Museo Reina Sofía, starts this time from a fascinating piece of research: the analysis of the garments worn by the famous stone-sculpted Ladies and the study of the topography of archaeological sites. In the absence of actual textile fragments from the Iberian period, the artist has crafted tapestries and precise fold studies that emulate the shapes and drapes of ancient mantles, uniting concepts such as covering or folding that are common to both sewing and geological processes. In this way, the life of fabrics is placed at the centre of a morphological process where artistic temporality merges with the history of the earth and its landscapes.

This intervention constitutes the fourth instalment of the series Memory, fabrics, museums. The slums of attention, a project curated by Selina Blasco and Patricia Molins that promotes collaboration between contemporary artists and national museum teams. Following its run at the Museo del Traje, the Museum of Romanticism and the Museum of Decorative Arts, this series of exhibitions continues to rescue forgotten or subtle aspects of our public collections.

Through Lanceta's work, the National Archaeological Museum not only exhibits art, but also offers a profound reflection on how textile matter has served for centuries to cover, adorn and define the identity of the societies that preceded us.