We are happy to announce the selection committee of the “Artist-Community Synergies” Open Call of Art Pluriverse – Textile Month, the digital event of the Biennale of Western Balkans. The committee will consist of:

Dr. Janis Jefferies, artist, researcher, theorist and Emeritus Professor of Visual Arts at the Department of Computing Goldsmiths, University of London.

Janis Jefferies is an artist, researcher, theorist and Emeritus Professor of Visual Arts at the Department of Computing Goldsmiths, University of London. She is recognised by her peers as one of the leading practitioners/ theorists of her generation, through solo exhibitions of work, conferences and professional seminars, exhibitions, curatorial work, journal publications, catalogue essays for artists of international standing, edited books and several chapter contributions on textiles, technology, performance and practice-based research for anthologies distributed by Manchester, Edinburgh and Duke University Presses, Telos Art Publishing, Berg/Bloomsbury Publishers, Springer, Ashgate and Palgrave McMillan and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA.

To highlight some of her work, Jefferies was one of the founding editors of Textile; The Journal of Cloth and Culture. She was an Associate Research Fellow with Hexagram (Institute of Media, Arts and Technologies, Montreal, Canada) on three funded projects, ‘Narrative: Textiles Transmission and Translations’ (2004-2007), ‘Wearable Absence’ (2006-2010) and ‘The Re-Enchantment of Cloth and Textiles’ (2014-2019). In 2020 Jefferies was part of the international jury for Contextile 2020, Bienal De Arte Têxtil Contemporânea, Portugal. In 2019 she was the curator of the Polish National Exhibition, ‘Breaching Borders 2’, to coincide with the 2019 Łodź Triennial at the Centralne Muzeum Włkiennictwa w Łodzi. She was co-editor of the first, international Handbook of Textile Culture (with Diana Wood Conroy, University of Wollongong and Hazel Clark, Parsons School of Fine Art, US) for Bloomsbury Academic (2015) and is currently co-chief editor (with Dr. Vivienne Richmond) for the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of World Textiles expected in 2023.

OLOOP, design group founded in 2003 by three textile designers and artists: Tjaša Bavcon (MA), Jasmina Ferček (MA) and Katja Burger Kovič (Assistant Professor at the University of Ljubljana). They work in many different fields of visual arts and design, including product design, spatial design, textile art and participatory art.

The design group Oloop was founded in 2003 by three textile designers and artists: Tjaša Bavcon (MA), Jasmina Ferček (MA) and Katja Burger Kovič (Assistant Professor at the University of Ljubljana). They work in many different fields of visual arts and design – product design, spatial design, textile art, participatory art, etc. In 2011 Oloop started to combine design with the social sphere. Contemporary textile art became a medium for connections, participation and personal or community empowerment. Oloop co-created with various vulnerable groups – women, immigrants and unemployed people. In this way, they raise awareness of the importance of craft and its impact on the well-being of individuals and communities.

Over the years, the Oloop group has participated in the most important Slovenian design exhibitions at home and abroad, winning international recognition and a number of prestigious awards, such as Red Dot Award and Alpine Pluralism Award. The following products – Woolen Soap, Flying Slippers and Squareplay – are part of the permanent exhibition at the Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana.

Dr. Vasiliki Rokou, Emeritus Professor of Historical and Social Anthropology at the Department of History and Archeology, University of Ioannina

Vassiliki Rokou is Emeritus Professor of Historical and Social Anthropology at the Department of History and Archeology, University of Ioannina. Her scientific focus lies on methodology issues and interdisciplinary research in alpine regions; the history (economy- society- culture) of alpine regions and in particular, the transition from the wool-related economy to home crafts, the trade of livestock raw materials in the context of the emergent mediterranean economy (17th-19th century), the integration into the global market economy and industrialisation, the regional character of alpine development and the incomplete economy, the production of woolen fabric and its use in everyday clothing, and finally the entry of silk fabrics in the clothing repertory.

Her monographs and numerous scientific articles have been published in Greece and abroad, while she has organised and participated in various conferences. She directs the “Laboratory of Pre-Industrial Technology”, the “Center for Tradition and Culture Research” and the “Center for the Study of Alpine Societies”. She is also a member of the Costume Society of Greece, as part of the Association Française des Etudes des Tissus.