"Trådar" will be the Nordic Museum's largest exhibition since the well-known base exhibition "Nordbor" was inaugurated in 2024. Behind the initiative are several years of work collecting objects, building stories and establishing international contacts.
In the center is the thread – literally and symbolically. Through around 400 objects, textiles, tools, photographs and films, it is depicted how wool and linen became fabric and clothing, and how textile knowledge has supported societies through the millennia. The exhibition, which opens at the beginning of next year, is based on the museum's own collections and loans from museums in the USA, Italy, Greece and the Nordic countries.
For Sanne Houby-Nielsen, director of the Nordic Museum Foundation, it is more than a historical exhibition. She describes it as a way to shed light on current issues about sustainability, overconsumption and the value of craftsmanship.
One of the highlights is ancient Greek vases that are being shown in the Nordics for the first time. Special attention is directed to an approximately 2,500-year-old lekyte, an ancient Greek oil pot, on loan from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The oil bottle is attributed to the Amasis Painter, a Greek potter and vase painter active in Athens in the middle of the 5th century BC. On the vase, girls and women are depicted at a standing loom – a motif that has gained great importance in textile historical research.
- It's like the Rembrandt of textile history, says Sanne Houby-Nielsen.
The exhibition also contains the so-called Penelope vase, which is particularly relevant when the story of Odysseus is again in focus through Christopher Nolan's film.
- Penelope, Odysseus' wife in Greek mythology, is depicted here at her loom - not only as the waiting husband, but as a symbol of female knowledge, work and production, she says.
Houby-Nielsen emphasizes that the vases are not only exclusive loans, but also have a strong connection to the history of the Nordic Museum. One hundred years ago, researchers at the museum drew attention to the connections between Nordic textile tradition and the pictorial world of antiquity.
The exhibition brings together these ancient motifs with Nordic and Arctic objects, including looms from Sweden, Norway, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. According to Houby-Nielsen, it is precisely the meeting between objects from different times and places that gives the exhibition its special power.
At the same time, there is a clear contemporary criticism. "Threads" wants to remind that textiles were once vital and highly valued, while clothes and fabrics today are seen as wearables. The exhibition also highlights new movements - producers and craftsmen in the Nordics who work with natural materials and sustainable methods.
Another important track is the role of women. Houby-Nielsen returns to how textile knowledge throughout history has been carried by women and girls, while their work has rarely been given the same status as other production.
She describes "Trådar" as a vindication for those whose work was crucial, but long overlooked.
- This is female textile knowledge that has supported society and the private household for millennia, she says.
The hope is that the visitor will leave the exhibition with new knowledge about history, but also with a different view of textiles in everyday life. According to Houby-Nielsen, it should inspire respect for the materials, the craftsmanship and the people behind them.
