△Contextile 2026 Biennial Opening
The Opening
△ The Growing House Exhibition Opening
The next day after the opening, the Textile Talks seminar at Contextile 2026 brought together participants for two days of exchange and discussion on textiles, art, and interdisciplinary practices. During the seminar, Professor Assadour Markarov shared insights into the Growing House art project and the practice of Fiber Media Lab. From the project’s origins and creative process to the formation of the artists collective, Professor Markarov showcased the evolution of the Growing House as it grew from Hangzhou to Portugal.
△Textile Talk Conference
The Growing House: Keep on Growing in Portugal
The Growing House project was initiated in 2022 during the 4th Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art by British artist Kate Egan and Professor Assadour Markarov from China Academy of Art. Set along the backdrop of the title, "Being Theoria", the exhibition reimagined Allan Kaprow’s concept of “Happenings,” enabling creative process to unfold simultaneously online and offline.
At the heart of the Growing House lies the image of the “Home”—not merely a physical dwelling, but also a psychological imply of shelter and security. Through four media — structural frameworks, boxes, threads, and textiles — Growing House constructs a poetic space in a constant state of transformation. As the project statement describes: “Space begins to grow, constantly changing, making sounds, flashing light, opening eyes (windows), establishing passages, and connecting with other spaces. It becomes a house, but it does not stop; it continues to grow. It is happening.”
△The Growing House project poster
Five years later, the Growing House was invited to participate in Contextile 2026, the Contemporary Textile Art Biennial. For the new edition, the project brought together works by fifteen emerging artists, creating an entirely new iteration of Growing House that resonates with the biennial’s thematic strand, “By a Thread”.
At the exhibition site, the artists approached the entire space as a process of “growing” and “building,” responding to the biennial’s theme through the power of “thinking through making.” Thread serves as both material and metaphor—a delicate yet resilient connection that weaves together people, cultures, memories, and futures. Threads extend into paths, paths intertwine to form a labyrinth, and the labyrinth gradually takes shape as a house that continues to grow. Every thread may lead to another story, and every encounter may open up a new direction.
The project began in Hangzhou and took root in Guimarães. Individual memories, references to traditional cultures, and imagined connections with Portugal are woven together like threads, forming an open site of continuous growth and transformation. As diverse stories, experiences, and cultural perspectives converge within the space, Growing Housebecomes a living site that connects time, space, context, and audience.
Selected Artworks
△ Take a Seat
Maria Ganeva（Bulgarian）
tubular cotton yarn, velvet, and recycled foam filling
Maria Ganeva transforms chairs into four groups of soft, organic sculptures: the Throne, the Still Seat, the Hot Seat, and the Conversation Seat. Though chairs are among the most ordinary objects in everyday life, they are never meant for only sitting. They define positions, assign roles, and create distance or intimacy. Using tubular cotton yarn, velvet, and recycled foam filling, Ganeva invites visitors to sit down and complete the work through acts of resting, waiting, and conversing.
△ Temporary Shelter
Luo Shilin
plastic moving bag fabric, heat-press fabric, wire, plastic yarn, etc.
Luo Shilin cuts, sews, and reconstructs the classic red, blue and white moving bag fabric into the form of banana leaves. Using inexpensive, accessible textile materials, the artwork migrates from the humid south of China to another hot southern landscape, where it continues to grow and tear. Through this process, Luo carries out a “migratory” translation of a distinctive regional culture.
△ The Living Window
Li Wen
mixed fabric
Li Wen creates a “living window” through quilting and embroidery, capturing the landscapes, figures, and events beyond the window in textile form. As viewers approach the window, they too become part of the scene framed within it.
△ Surplus Feast
Dong Yingying
textiles waste
Dong Yingying uses texile waste to sew soft sculptures that form a suspended "dining table". The work evokes the ecological burdens of food waste, water consumption, and fast fashion.
△ The number you have dialed is not in service
Peng Sisi
wire, acrylic, aluminum buckle, stainless steel
The work traces the evolution of Shenzhen’s urban communication systems through changes in the artist’s childhood landline phone numbers, evoking the collective memory of an era.
Exhibition View
Artist Team
The exhibition is curated by Assadour Markarov, with Zhu Zhixian and Ren Zhe as curatorial assistants. The participating artists include: Maria Ganeva, Zhu Zhixian, Ren Zhe, Luo Shilin, Wang Sicong, Peng Sisi, Li Xinlu, Li Wen, Wang Xinya, Li Guiyan, Dong Yingying, Lü Jing, Mao Yusha, Wang Meijing, Xia Tianyi, Pan Weixuan, and Yu Zenan & Wuhuo.
Fiber Media Lab (FML) serves as the curatorial support and production team, participating throughout the planning, installation, and organization of the exhibition. FML is a cultural and arts organization dedicated to research and interdisciplinary practice in fiber art and public space. Through international exhibitions, academic programs, and artistic production, it creates spaces for dialogue and exchange. FML is committed to translating cultural heritage through the language of fiber while actively advancing public arts education and cultural communication.
△ The Growing House Team
The Growing House never stop growing. With every new presentation, there are new artists coming, new ideas merging, new space activated. From Hangzhou to Guimarães, the "house" is still growing and happening...
We warmly welcome everyone in Portugal to visit the exhibition, and look forward to seeing Growing House continue to grow and migrate in the future.
