Marisa Fick-Jordan: The wonders of Zulu wire art

Translator: Nika Kotnik Reviewer: Matej Divjak

The decorative use of wire in southern Africa

Dekorativna uporaba žice v južnem delu Afrike,

dates back hundreds of years.

sega več sto let v preteklost.

But modernization actually brought communication

Ampak modernizacija je prinesla komunikacijo

and a whole new material, in the form of telephone wire.

in popolnoma nov material, v obliki telefonske žice.

Rural to urban migration meant that newfound industrial materials

Zaradi selitve iz podeželja v mesto so na novo odkriti industrijski materiali

started to replace hard-to-come-by natural grasses.

začeli nadomeščati težko dostopne naravne trave.

So, here you can see the change

Tu, lahko vidite spremembo v uporabi,

from use -- starting to use contemporary materials.

začetek uporabe sodobnih materialov.

These pieces date back from the '40s to the late '50s.

To so kosi iz obdobja 40-ih do poznih 50-ih.

V 90ih, me je zanimanje in strast za prehodne oblike umetnosti

In the '90s, my interest and passion for transitional art forms

led me to a new form,

vodila v novo obliko, ki je prišla

which came from a squatter camp outside Durban.

iz skvoterskega kampa zunaj Durbana.

And I got the opportunity to start working with this community

Dobila sem priložnost dela s to skupnostjo

at that point, and started developing, really,

in začela z razvojem,

and mentoring them in terms of scale, in terms of the design.

postala njihov mentor glede velikosti in oblikovanja.

In kmalu je projekt zrasel s pet na 50 tkalcev v enem letu.

And the project soon grew from five to 50 weavers in about a year.

Soon we had outgrown the scrap yards, what they could provide,

Kmalu smo prerasli smetišča, kar smo lahko dobili tam,

so we coerced a wire manufacturer to help us,

zato smo prisilili proizvajalca žic, da nam je pomagal,

and not only to supply the materials on bobbins,

in ne samo, da nam je dobavil material na tulcih,

but to produce to our color specifications.

ampak, da ga je proizvedel po naših barvnih zahtevah.

At the same time, I was thinking, well,

Obenem sem razmišljala,

there's lots of possibility here to produce contemporary products,

da je tu veliko priložnosti za proizvodnjo sodobnih izdelkov,

away from the ethnic, a little bit more contemporary.

stran od ljudskega, malo bolj sodobno.

zato sem razvila celotno ponudbo -- masovno proizvodnjo ponudbe--

So I developed a whole range around -- mass-produced range --

that obviously fitted into a much higher-end decor market

ki je spadala v veliko višji razred tržišča notranje opreme,

that could be exported and also service our local market.

ki bi ga lahko izvažali in tudi prodajali na lokalnem trgu.

We started experimenting, as you can see, in terms of shapes,

Začeli smo eksperimentirati, kot lahko vidite, v oblikah, formi.

forms. The scale became very important,

Velikost je postala zelo pomembna

and it's become our pet project. It's successful,

in to je postal naš posebni projekt. Zelo je uspešen,

teče že 12 let. Dobavljamo trgovinam Conran

it's been running for 12 years. And we supply the Conran shops,

and Donna Karan, and so it's kind of great.

in Donni Karan, torej je super.

This is our group, our main group of weavers.

To je naša skupina, naša glavna skupina tkalcev.

They come on a weekly basis to Durban.

Vsak teden pridejo v Durban.

They all have bank accounts.

Vsi imajo bančne račune.

They've all moved back to the rural area where they came from.

Vsi so se preselili nazaj na podeželje.

It's a weekly turnaround of production.

Gre za tedenski obrat proizvodnje.

This is the community that I originally showed you the slide of.

To je skupnost, ki sem vam jo pokazala.

And that's also modernized today,

Tudi to se je danes moderniziralo,

and it's supporting work for 300 weavers.

in zagotavlja delo 300 tkalcem.

And the rest says it all.

In ostalo pove vse.

Thank you very much.

Najlepša hvala.

(Applause)

(Aplavz)