Workshop Vita Buivid, Conny Groenewegen, Kristin Maurer

Knit for Survival!

Emergency sweater knitting workshop against P*t*n.

30 Apr 2022

Come join Mediamatic in a series of knitting workshops and turn down your heating by starting to knit a sweater, a hat, or some fuzzy socks.

So grab your warmest clothes and let's start to reduce our dependency on Putin's gas!

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Close-up of textile students participating in our knitting workshop - Meet our guests in Knit for Survival! Textile Design students at Central Saint Martins joined us at Knitting for Survival. They created small knits to contribute to our collective patched sweater for Ukraine. With backgrounds in Knit, Weave and Print they enjoyed experimenting together and sharing techniques. Andrea Valdivia

War is upon us.

With the tensions raised and now exploding in Ukraine, it can seem hopeless and very distant from the peace we are experiencing here in the Netherlands. So what can we do about it? How are we attached within this conflict and can we play a role in it? Yes! We can! Apart from frontline jobs that seem far away from here, Putin’s influence is still very much present around us, especially in the winter months.

What presence is this you may ask? Well, it is the heat you get from your radiator on a typical raining winter day, it is the warmth you get from your water heater when you run yourself a welcoming hot bath, and it is the time saved when drying your socks upon the heater by the window.

Let us reduce our dependency by turning down our heating, knit for Ukraine, and put a sweater on against Putin!

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Trui: Maison Margiela voor H&M - Poetin we willen je gas niet meer! We gaan een paar truien voor onszelf houden want we moeten versnelde van het gas af. Europa koopt gas van Rusland en daarmee financieren we het regime van Poetin. Een goede extra reden om veel zuiniger te gaan doen met energie. Bij Mediamatic gaat de verwarming 3 graden lager. (de trui is ontworpen door Maison Martin Margiela voor H&M, uit de collectie van Willem Velthoven) Willem Velthoven

What you will do

We will be hosting various textile artists and designers who will guide you as you start your journey to warmth for our fellow Ukrainians. You will be introduced to the basics of needlework, and offered the possibility to explore more complex knitting techniques through the guidance of our team of workshop tutors. It is time to make some fuzzy socks and warm sweaters as a community. The workshops will be lead by a team of textile artists and designers with the first meetings will be on March 6, 9 and 12 from 14:00h on. Mediamatic provides materials and warm tea. Check our event calendar for updates!

Workshop tutors

During this workshop, you will be guided by a team of three textile artists and designers: Vita Buivid, Conny Groenewegen and Kristin Maurer

Vita Buivid is a Ukrainian/Russian artist & photographer. Buivid is considered to be one of the forward-thinking feminists in Russian art. Specifically in her project "How I Spent my Summer" where portrays a colliding collage of images of peaceful relaxation with military invasion.

Conny Groenewegen is an expert in knitting! As a textile artist and designer, Conny has been involved in many projects with Mediamatic like The Fashion Machine and Inhuman Carnaval workshops: Bugs and Buds Bootcamp and Species Spectacle

Kristin Maurer is an artist and designer involved in the construction most recently of the Inhuman Carnaval Open Costume Lab where you can design and create your very own species-inspired costume to become another being under her guidance!

Information

Time: 14:00-17:30
Admission: Free
Please note that, unless everyone speaks Dutch, this workshop will be held in English.

For questions please e-mail workshop@mediamatic.nl.
We are taking corona safety into account at our workshops.
Read our ticket terms and conditions here.
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Materials setup - This is where it start for Knit for Survival! This is the wool and print outs we use for Knit for Survival!  Knitting doesn't have to be hard. In our knitting sessions, you don't have to be an experienced needle worker at all. We'll provide beginner tools and instructions next to the most advanced and experienced coaching by Vita Buivid, Conny Groenewegen and Kristin Maurer. Andrea Valdivia

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Knit for Survival guest - Participant from our workshop is concentrated knitting a sweater! Knitting doesn't have to be hard. In our knitting sessions, you don't have to be an experienced needle worker at all. We'll provide beginner tools and instructions next to the most advanced and experienced coaching by Vita Buivid, Conny Groenewegen and Kristin Maurer.  Andrea Valdivia

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Anna Smiling - Meet our guests in Knit for Survival! Knitting doesn't have to be hard. In our knitting sessions, you don't have to be an experienced needle worker at all. We'll provide beginner tools and instructions next to the most advanced and experienced coaching by Vita Buivid, Conny Groenewegen and Kristin Maurer. Anna Lina Litz, one of Mediamatic's programme and events intern, is practicing knitting skills here. Andrea Valdivia

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Knitting for Ukraine - In our Knitting for Survival sessions, we learn how to make our own warm items as an alternative way to stay warm without giving any gas money to Putin. We stand in solidarity with Ukraine and have decided to turn our gas heaters down, so we are learning how to knit guided by volunteer textile artists and designers in this series of free workshops.  Ilya Rabinovich

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Conny & Vita sharing techniques - Knit for Survival! In our knitting workshop, Conny (left) and Vita (right)  are discussing what next steps will be taken to knit a sweater here. Knitting for Survival is a workshop that seeks to help Ukraine by teaching people how to knit sweaters to reduce our gas dependency on Russia. Knitting doesn't have to be hard. In our knitting sessions, our guests did not need to be an experienced needle worker at all. They were provide beginner tools and instructions next to the most advanced and experienced coaching by… Andrea Valdivia