sweeping under the carpet

Carpet/Sculpture, 3m x 1.78m

Vienna, 2023

Vienna Design Week 2023

Design Without Borders (DWB) 2024 Budapest & Bratislava

Modern societies are blind to waste as it remains hidden from plain sight; as the saying goes, “out of sight, out of mind.”Whether in a bin, a backyard, or a landfill, cities have perfected the invisibility of waste from our sights. However, waste keeps growing distant from our sight, becoming a massive planetary problem through water pollution, methane emissions, and the invasion of micro-plastics.

Shifting our focus to carpets reveals a tapestry of symbols, meanings, and narratives that extend beyond their function.Traditional carpet-making often manifests its weavers’ hopes, desires, and anxieties. By using motifs in an altered form, we will investigate how an alternative carpet design can trigger a conversation around waste production by criticizing the ineffectiveness of hiding the waste as if it is being swept under a metaphorical carpet. We will also ponder what materials and symbols a new generation of carpet weavers could use on a carpet in the Anthropocene age. 

Team:  Dila Demircan Özer & Nazgol Sobhani