Exhibition ‘Al’Qala. Threads of History’

From 11 April to 5 June, the Royal Tapestry Factory of Madrid hosts an exhibition on Palestinian tatreez embroidery and its various forms of expression, both in the past and today. The project brings together more than 60 works from museums and private collections in the Middle East, as well as works created in collaboration with regional cultural initiatives.

The exhibition is structured into three consecutive sections. The first focuses on historical textiles and costumes from the 19th and 20th centuries, complemented by accessories from different regions of Palestine, including Bethlehem, Ramallah, Hebron, Gaza and Jerusalem. These objects show how embroidery has shaped a recognisable visual code of everyday culture.

In the second section, tatreez is presented as a practice that endures over time. It includes works by refugee women, created with the collaboration of the Lebanese association Inaash, in which embroidery becomes a way of preserving memory and conveying experience through manual work.

The third part focuses on contemporary art. The SILA project brings together 21 works by artists from Palestine, Syria, Kuwait and Lebanon, in which traditional embroidery becomes the basis for new artistic solutions.