The World is a Handkerchief
Handkerchiefs have accompanied people in celebrations and farewells in many cultures for centuries, offered bodily protection and coverage, and sustained expressions of political tenets and spiritual beliefs. In this project, handkerchiefs become vessels of memories and itinerant narratives; containers of emotions; translators of wounds, and signals of ideological resistance. Each piece epitomizes a soft space that holds disappearing recollections of homeland as well as reflections on displacement and identity that can be carried as a tangible memento. In times when touch appears as a dangerous sense, every single printed handkerchief means a meaningful testament to the continuous nurturing mentorship among artists and educators, reminding us that soft touch remains both as an intimate and universal element of communication.
The World is a Handkerchief is a traveling exhibition rooted in the Spanish saying 鈥榚l mundo es un pa帽uelo,鈥� which translates into English as 鈥榯his is such a small world鈥�. The project traces serendipitous encounters, moments of discovering personal connections in distant places or unexpected contexts.
The project began with the meeting of Claudia DeMonte and Cecilia Mandrile as a mentor and student respectively at the University of Maryland, United States in 1995 and has expanded through an international collaborative network between mentors, students, and peers. To celebrate this constant and sustained creative dialogue, in 2019 the curators developed a portable exhibition of 50 handkerchiefs that explored the meaning of belonging and interconnectedness that this Spanish saying so tangibly evokes.
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Handkerchiefs have accompanied people in celebrations and farewells in many cultures for centuries, offered bodily protection and coverage, and sustained expressions of political tenets and spiritual beliefs. In this project, handkerchiefs become vessels of memories and itinerant narratives; containers of emotions; translators of wounds, and signals of ideological resistance. Each piece epitomizes a soft space that holds disappearing recollections of homeland as well as reflections on displacement and identity that can be carried as a tangible memento. In times when touch appears as a dangerous sense, every single printed handkerchief means a meaningful testament to the continuous nurturing mentorship among artists and educators, reminding us that soft touch remains both as an intimate and universal element of communication.
The World is a Handkerchief is a traveling exhibition rooted in the Spanish saying 鈥榚l mundo es un pa帽uelo,鈥� which translates into English as 鈥榯his is such a small world鈥�. The project traces serendipitous encounters, moments of discovering personal connections in distant places or unexpected contexts.
The project began with the meeting of Claudia DeMonte and Cecilia Mandrile as a mentor and student respectively at the University of Maryland, United States in 1995 and has expanded through an international collaborative network between mentors, students, and peers. To celebrate this constant and sustained creative dialogue, in 2019 the curators developed a portable exhibition of 50 handkerchiefs that explored the meaning of belonging and interconnectedness that this Spanish saying so tangibly evokes.
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