The material world of textiles and its nostalgic renderings in Romanian contemporary art

Taking its theoretical cues from current memory studies’ engagement with materiality and material culture, this article addresses the nostalgic material world of contemporary textile art in postcommunist Romania. It argues that certain textile art pieces are conducive to various nostalgic renderings of longing for both historical, and mythical (or personal) times and spaces. Two types of art production organize the focus of this article: the first one consists of artistic mnemonic materializations in which the artists employ textiles as the main medium. The second one consists of the artists’ works where the “memory of cloth”—that occasions nostalgia—is enacted in other artistic media. Rendering nostalgia through and about textiles are not approached as separate cultural practices. The two types of artistic production are analyzed in tandem to suggest that there is an interconnectedness between the material and “immaterial” mnemonic threads conducive to nostalgia.