Underground and air, BIEN 2025

THE FLAG, 2025
Silva Horvat, Anja Musek, Lili Panjtar, Nina Vastl Štefe

Technique: textile collage and machine sewing
Material: linen canvas
Dimensions: 280 x 600 cm

The flag represents the mine, the ore, a drop of mercury, the underground and the air outside. All of this is captured in an abstract, bright, airy and optimistic image and form, gently moving in the wind. The flag stands in stark contrast to a traditional mining flag, highlighting a shift, a turn, a transformation.
It is mounted on the metal outdoor elevator structure at the Jožefov jašek shaft. Together with the other four works, it creates a spatial composition and perspective, establishing a connection between the various elevation levels of the entire technical system at this site. Below is the water pump “kamšt”, the middle level holds the artworks and walkways, and the top level features the dominant metal structure with the flag.

It portrays the mine, the ore, a drop of mercury, the underground and the outside air in an abstract, bright, airy form – emphasizing shift, movement, and transformation.

DEEP UNDERGROUND, 2025
Lili Panjtar

Materials: cotton canvas
techniques: mixed – hand dyeing with rust and black ink, hand transferring photographs to canvas; machine and hand sewing, embroidery
Dimensions: approx. 5 x 1 m / piece

AIR is colorless, odorless, and tasteless; it is invisible. It is a composition of gases that makes up Earth’s atmosphere. Oxygen in the air is vital for all living beings. The composition of air changes with altitude; at higher elevations, the air is thinner. As depth increases, air supply becomes more difficult.
I explore the hard labor of the Idrija miners deep beneath the surface, in damp, dark, dangerous mining tunnels. How raw it is – to survive almost your entire life in the deep blackness of tunnels, in the lack of air – to be exposed to harsh conditions and materials – to have luck when mining ore and, at the same time, misfortune as mercury slowly poisons you. To give away your youth in the tunnels and never know what the day brings – will you come back up, to open air? Or will you remain in the darkness forever? I am looking for contrasts and parallels – above/below, light/dark, in open air/lack of air.
Deep in the tunnels of Idrija, they also mined cinnabar ore. It reminds me of the rust that forms during the corrosion of iron when it is exposed to the elements. With the help of oxygen/oxidation and moisture, I obtain a permanent color that forever leaves its mark on the raw core fabric. Like the mine on the miner. I feel deep respect for these men who, as boys, descended into the pit. Into the dark. Into the blackness.

The gruelling work in the mercury mine deep underground strikes me as a play of contrasts – light/dark, above/below, in the air/in the absence of it – with the miner always caught somewhere in between.

Photos: Photo Archive of the Idrija Municipal Museum.
Acknowledgments: Svet metraže donated a smaller bale (18 m) of damaged cotton canvas.

INHALE, 2025
Anja Musek

Material: hand-made wool felt
Techniques: 3D seamless wet felting
Dimensions: 280 x 80 x 80 cm

The felt work Inhale is a tribute to the Idrija miners – individuals who risked their lives every day working in dark tunnels. For five centuries, they mined mercury in Idrija. Every morning, they gathered at the roll-call station, where they were given a numbered metal tag. At the end of the shift, they returned the number – if they made it back. “Srečno” (Good luck) was written above the entrance to the mine.

Floating felt forms hanging by threads symbolize the fragility and vulnerability of the miners’ lives. Their daily exposure to risk, pain, and the invisible effects of toxic ore is captured in these wool structures. Each form is like a cocoon – a form of protection, and at the same time, a symbol of the tension between life and death. Some cocoons are “on,” like flames that still burn. Others remain dark – a silent memory of those who never returned to the surface, who never inhaled in fresh air again.

Inhale is not just an echo of the past, but also a reflection on the value of human life – on the bodily memory that imprints itself into space and matter.

Imagine the moment when, after a long, exhausting day of mining, they were returning from the tunnel and took a cautious, slow, deep breath of the air that is not veiled by the dust of ore, but instead gives life itself.

Inhale.

Inhale is a tribute to the Idrija miners who returned from the underground to life every day. And a quiet memory of those who never took a breath of fresh air again.

AIRING, 2025
Silva Horvat

Material: wool yarn
Technique: hand weaving
Dimensions: approx. 1.5 x 8 m

The inspiration for Airing reaches back to my childhood — a memory of my mother.
Every spring, she would stretch a clothesline between two trees in the garden next to our house. We would take all the winter clothes out of the closets — especially wool coats, jackets, and other garments that weren’t meant to be washed — and hang them outside. During the day, the air and wind would clean and freshen them, infusing them with the scent of spring and freshness.
I was reminded of this scene when I entered the building next to the Jožefov jašek shaft — the space where miners used to hang their clothes on hooks and hoist them under the ceiling. Some of those garments still hang there today — subtle remnants of history.
All of my exhibited pieces are handwoven from wool and serve as records of a specific time — I made them in the period between 1980 and 1990. They are tangible proof of durability, preservation, and functionality. They are rooted in respect for tradition and folk motifs while simultaneously embracing contemporary expression.
They are timeless — and therefore, entirely relevant.

A childhood memory of spring airing of wool garments, reflected in the sight of miners’ clothes hanging from the ceiling in the Jožefov jašek shaft building.

HORIZON, THE QUILT OF LIFE OF THE IDRIJA MERCURY MINE, 2025
Nina Vastl Štefe
Technique: hand quilting and embroidery
Material: recycled old bed linen, boiled wool fabric, cotton filling, cotton and wool threads
Dimensions: 300 x 300 cm

The Quilts of Life are textile pieces, applied art, memories, heritage. These are quilts that tell the stories of individuals or special places.
Horizon is The Qiuilt of Life of the Idrija Mercury Mine. It is the story of the mine (part of the story) sewn onto fabric.
The mine had a long and interesting life. Its story has all the elements of realism and romance, as well as fantasy, and is full of contradictions. It is tragic in places, but also courageous and visionary…
A few things that inspired and touched me the most from the mining stories, which I included in The Quilt of Life:
– the naming of the levels in the mine, which was in painful contrast to the actual situation: Horizons
– the knowledge and complexity of the technical systems that worked together at the Jožefov jašek shaft location: dredge, gravel pit, elevator, water pumping, freight cable car, smelter
– the native drops of mercury
– the connection with my mining ancestors from the Mežica valley
– the contrast between the underground and nature on the surface
– the people, past and present.

The Quilt of Life for the Idrija Mercury mine is a soft quilt that has parts of the mining story sewn into the fabric and tells the story of the different layers of the underground and the air on the surface…

The textile works were created as part of the AlpTextyles project, co-financed by the European Union within the framework of the Alpine Space Programme

Foto: Maša Pirc, BIEN2025