At this fifth workshop we will be joined by a special group of embroiderers who learned about Moorish embroidery at the workshops organized in 2023 at the Casa Encendida given by Patricia Esquivias as part of her project Hilar largo (“Threading Long”).

We will also be connecting with a Palestinian embroidery workshop called “Weaving Bonds,” to be organized simultaneously in Palma de Mallorca by the “Andreu Crespí i Plaza” Official Language School (EOI) in Palma and the “Son Canals” Center of Education for Adults (CEPA). For the second year in a row, they have arranged a workshop on the same afternoon as of 4:30 p.m. at the central headquarters of the EOI.

The idea for the workshop came about as a result of the workshops organized by Casa Árabe last year as part of the project Living Tatreez, based on the instructions and materials which were held with an invitation to take part in creating a collective embroidery by the general public. It was then thought that this participation was a good opportunity to work together in order to promote cultural sharing and offer students from both centers the chance to express themselves orally in the language they were learning at the time. As a result, the first Palestinian embroidery workshop was held with the students from the Arabic Department of the Language School and the Arabic-speaking students studying Spanish at the CEPA, who came in contact with each other by performing an entertaining manual task in a relaxed atmosphere, all before a backdrop of solidarity. Many of the pieces embroidered at this first workshop were sent and donated to Casa Árabe, thus contributing to the creation of the Star of Bethlehem, made with embroidery donated by workshop participants and the general public, and later exhibited in Madrid and Cordoba.

Using the scraps from different pieces that will be created during the workshops and gatherings throughout the year of 2024, we will be producing a collective work: a panel that will form part of a Gazan dress connected with scraps in the diaspora.

Each participant will be given a piece of that panel to embroider, and they will also be able to choose different Palestinian embroidery motifs that they can donate to complete the rest of the work, scraps to be connected through different threads representing the Palestinian people in the diaspora. From home or wherever you happen to be, you can also choose motifs of your own and send them in to us so that we can include them in the piece.

Those who have already taken part in prior workshops can come and start embroidering right away. As for those coming to learn about it for the first time, they can attend a theoretical introduction lasting 15 minutes about tatreez in Palestinian history and culture, its regional variants, its dimensions and meaning, in addition to a practical embroidery session.

To finish off the event, in commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, on the evening of November 30 we will be inviting those of you who already know how to embroider to participate in a marathon Palestinian embroidery gathering, also from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m., where we can all get together to continue making embroidery and connect with other groups of embroiderers from different places all over the world.

The collective work, once assembled, will be exhibited at Casa Árabe’s headquarters in Madrid and will be put together using the many pieces that you have embroidered from home and other places.

The Palestinian embroidery motifs that you embroider at home and the instructions for making those embroidery pieces will be posted on the website soon. We will be publishing a PDF file with 17 models and the embroidery instructions.

In line with the project Living Tatreez that we hosted last year, the goal of this new series of workshops and meetings is to increase awareness about the different varieties and dimensions of tatreez, its meaning as a part of Palestinian identity and culture, thus creating networks of cultural resistance and solidarity from different parts of the world. In addition to being an art form in and of itself, which can be used in clothing, dresses, scarves, artwork and posters, it is also a way to make a living, especially for many women in the diaspora and among the Palestinian refugee population in Jordan.

The workshops/gatherings are being held with the with the cooperation of Maysun Cheikh Ali Mediavilla, a Spanish-Palestinian teacher and artist.