The third Brno exhibition of textile techniques was the largest in Central and Eastern Europe

April 21, 2024 / 5:00 PM

Hall E of the Brno Exhibition Centre became an international centre of creative textile design for three days. The BRNO PATCHWORK MEETING exhibition once again expanded its scope and attracted more than 4,000 people interested in the creative use of textiles from 16 countries around the world.

The 16th edition of the international creative and textile exhibition was held for the first time under the new name Brno Patchwork Meeting. This was the third time the exhibition was held at the Brno Exhibition Centre and once again confirmed the growing trend. It was attended by over 20 galleries of individuals and artist groups from all over the world, which presented the whole spectrum of textile creation from traditional patchwork to modern wall paintings and original art quilts. In total, there were over 700 original quilts by more than 300 artists from 9 countries.

The commercial part of the exhibition was also growing. The number of exhibiting companies increased by 20 % and the exhibition area expanded to 6,000 m2. Companies presented a wide selection of sewing and embroidery machines, ironing equipment, accessories, components, fabrics and accessories. There were also popular workshops with renowned foreign and Czech lecturers. Further demonstrations of textile techniques took place directly at the sales stands. A precisely targeted range of goods, together with unique galleries and an attractive accompanying programme, brought over four thousand visitors to the Brno Patchwork Meeting. A quarter of them came from abroad, mainly from Slovakia, Hungary and Austria.

Textile art from around the world

The exhibition showed a cross-section of contemporary textile art and its main trends. The international competition collection of the French exhibition EPM Tribes and the worldwide collection of the SAQA association called Minimalism were presented. Contemporary German creation was represented by the selection From Tradition to Modernity XIII as well as the original collections by Christine Bünning, Isabella Wiessler and Heide Ulbrecht. International collaboration was behind the 20 Perspectives collection. A very attractive collection of modern quilts was brought in by the Dutch group Colorminds as well as their fellow native Hilde van Schaardenburg with her new works and textile creations. Beatrice Bouche from France presented a combination of quilt and painting. Sylwia Ignatowska from Poland, a multiple winner of the PPM/BPM competitions, offered her comprehensive gallery. Austria was the guest country this year, represented by two selections.

Curator Ann Hill's collection on the topic of Alzheimer and quilt with a follow-up lecture was also extremely interesting.

The star of the Czech classics for 2024 was Marcela Kočířová. The Bohemia Patchwork Club exhibited the Autumn and Baroque collections and Czech artists Eva Bovoli, Irena Zemanová and Věra Englichová showed innovative possibilities and modern techniques.

Competition collections ZERO WASTE and SCRAP

Two international competitions focused on sustainability were announced last year at the Brno Patchwork Meeting. Fifty-two artists from seven countries participated, and this year an international competition collection was exhibited and judged by an 11-member international jury.

Both of this year's winners are from the Czech Republic. Monika Malinová won in the creative competition on the theme ZERO WASTE with her quilt Birds' Secrets and in the classic competition on the theme SCRAP, Milena Kankrlíková won the highest rating for her work entitled 8 015 pieces. In total, 15 quilts by artists from the Czech Republic, Poland, Kazakhstan and Hungary were awarded. All of them received valuable prizes from the exhibition partners Strima, Haišman, Brother and Ragos.

The organisers have already announced the themes for next year's competitions: in the classic category FOUR PATCH and in the creative category IN THE CIRCLE.

At the same time, a joint project between HEDVA CZECH BROKÁT and BVV Trade Fairs Brno has been launched. Quilters will use brocades from the Czech manufacturer to create textile works on the theme of SILK GARDEN. The project will result in a travelling exhibition, which will be presented for the first time at the BRNO PATCHWORK MEETING 2025.

Help for St. Elizabeth's Hospice and the Debra organization

During the BPM 2024 exhibition, two charity projects also took place. Members of the Bohemia Patchwork Club donated 50 autumn-themed cushions to St. Elizabeth's Hospice in Brno, with others added by the exhibition participants. In cooperation with the company Corpus Delicious, the Debra Charity Bazaar took place, which raised 23,050 CZK for the Debra organisation helping people with butterfly wing disease by selling clothes, sweets and other goods.

They said about the exhibition

Jana Štěrbová, curator of the exhibition

In its third year after its relocation to Brno, the exhibition is already in full bloom. This year's participation is again higher than last year, both in the number of galleries and in the number of individual artists and participants in the competitions. By moving to Brno, we have also gained a new audience, with more visitors from Austria, Poland, Hungary and many Slovaks.

Martin Zubatý, Managing Director, Strima Czech

I was surprised how many new faces were among the visitors this year. Especially Saturday was very strong, there were a lot of visitors from the morning until the evening. We were delighted with the interest in industrial sewing machines, which shows that owners of home sewing machines want to move to higher quality. And there was huge interest in small consumables. It's clear that people are already counting on the show and are planning to shop here, thanks in part to our special discounts.

Pavel Haišman, Managing Director, HAIŠMAN Sewing Centre

We had a lot of great customers here and we are very satisfied. It was such an international exhibition, we had a lot of Slovaks, but also customers from Austria, Hungary and other countries. The most important thing for us is that here we can show our sewing machines to customers so they can see how good they are.

Roman Brzuska, Managing Director, Brother Sewing Technology

We are satisfied, Friday was a beautiful start and Saturday was perfect. It also met our sales expectations.

Dana Raselová, owner, Ragos

We are extremely satisfied. A lot of people came and the interest was such that they were even arguing about the goods at the stand. Compared to last year, I think there were even more visitors.

Ladislava Zaklová, Executive Director, SOTEX GINETEX CZ

We were surprised by the attendance and the whole event seemed much more lively than last year. For us, it is an opportunity to be in contact with consumers and to promote the symbols of care not only among professionals, but also among avid laymen and ordinary users.

Denisa Pelikánová, owner, VierMa by Deny

This is my first time here and I really like the exhibition. I didn't expect it to be such a rush at all. Most people came to our booth on Friday and there was a lot of shopping. We had customers from Italy, Hungary, Denmark, Germany, and even as far away as the USA. I am very satisfied, not only with the attendance, but also with the organization and the attitude and willingness of the organizers.

Jana Křížová, salesperson, VEBA, textilní závody a. s.

The exhibition was great again and we are thrilled. There were also a lot of foreigners here. We also brought in new yardage and the interest of visitors was again great, we had queues.

Miroslava Sochorová, Sales, HEDVA ČESKÝ BROKÁT, s.r.o.

We were surprised by the number of visitors, it was great for us. The exhibition fulfilled what we expected, but we will definitely prepare better for the next edition. We will bring more goods and prepare packages, because we already know what visitors want.

Radka Pracná, owner, Látky Červený a spol.

As far as customers and people around patchwork are concerned, there is a great atmosphere here. We didn't stop at all for the first two days because we had people at our stand all the time.

Monika Kolejová, presentation of machines, PATCHWORKPARTY - Ing. Arch. Anna Zimová

You can see that the exhibition is evolving and growing. This year's show is again a bit bigger and better in terms of the mix of vendors. There were also more people than last year, and sometimes it was impossible to walk around on Saturday, which is great. I am extremely happy and excited!

Sonia Urbanová, Debra Charity Bazaar

We are very happy that we got a space at such a big event with a lot of people, where we can make the Debra organization more known. Although people come here to buy other things, they also buy our clothes, which are gradually disappearing, as well as jewellery and various goodies. We are happy to be able to send something again.