When Borders Matter: Crafting Borders in a Participatory Artistic Project at Trapholt Museum

Abstract

In 2020, 778 embroiderers co-created a textile artwork at the Danish museum Trapholt. Textile artist Iben Høj developed the artistic design, and citizens contributed 713 embroideries, which Høj assembled in a huge mobile, exhibited at Trapholt 2020–21. The project, Stitches Beyond Borders, was part of a celebration of the cession of North Schleswig from Germany to Denmark in 1920. However, the project addressed not only the centenary but also invited the participants to reflect on other borders and boundaries. This combination—of a national celebration and an open theme of borders and boundaries—attracted our interest. For how would Stitches Beyond Borders combine a contested topic like borders with a national celebration? How would diverse and potentially antagonistic understandings of borders interact in the participatory process and product? Based on an analysis of diverse and rich empirical material, we relate these questions to the controversial socio-political bordering practices in Denmark and theories of borders, participation, and craft. We analyze a borderscape of competing meanings and conclude that although Stitches Beyond Borders was a highly successful participatory, artistic craft project, it only partly fulfilled its unique potential to address contemporary bordering practices and create alternative imaginaries, subjectivities and agencies..

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