Bosna Quilts

09.05.2025 – 29.06.2025

Designed on Lake Constance. Sewn on the Drina. Textile art across borders. For over 30 years.
The Bosna Quilt Workshop began in the Galina refugee centre in Frastanz near the Vorarlberg town of Feldkirch. Some of the almost 90,000 refugees who sought refuge in Austria from the Bosnian war (1992-95) had found a place to stay here. The idea of bringing artists together with refugee women gave rise to an employment project in 1993, to which the painter Lucia Lienhard-Giesinger also committed herself. Contrary to all initial expectations, the collaboration between the women was to outlast the end of the war and their return home.

Designed in Bregenz (A) by the initiator and artistic director of the Bosna Quilt Workshop, Lucia Lienhard-Giesinger. And sewn by one of eleven Bosnian women from the town of Goražde. Each of them has her own handwriting, which she translates into skilful stitching.

The result is a Bosna quilt – a collaboration between two women from different worlds.

Selected Bosna quilts will be presented in the lounge of the Textile Museum St.Gallen from 9 May to 29 June 2025. The show opens on Thursday, 8 May 2025 at 6.00 pm with a presentation of Lucia Lienhard-Giesinger’s Bosna Quilt workshop. This will be followed by an aperitif, which will provide an opportunity for contemplation and dialogue.