The Fourth Cocoon & More-Than-Human Future | Exhibition Openings and Talk

An exhibition exploring silk as a living, speculative medium between humans, nature, and technology, and a talk on sericulture as a mirror of the modern fashion industry.

Openings: Saturday, 25 October 2025, 12:00–12:30 (ReThinkable) and Friday, 7 November 2025 (Pixxelpoint)
Exhibition on view: 25 October – 13 November 2025 (visible through the windows)
Location: Via Rastello 6, Gorizia

As part of the ReThinkable Festival 2025, the exhibition The Fourth Cocoon & More-Than-Human Future explores silk as a speculative medium — an interface between the human, the non-human, technology, and time. Once a symbol of wealth and empire, silk becomes here a metaphor of evolution and interdependence between species. Following its summer presentation at the GONG Gallery within BIEN 2025 (curated by Lovro Ivančić), the exhibition now unfolds as a cohesive narrative inviting visitors into a speculative space of more-than-human futures.

The exhibition brings together artists Lavoslava Benčić, Žiga Pavlovič, Marielle MacLeman, Mateja Fajt, and Katarina Ekart, whose practices bridge media art, textile and costume design, creative technologies, and visual research. Their installations and assemblages combine tradition, experimentation, and digital innovation, highlighting material agency and sensory interconnection.

Curator: Gašper Rebernik
Producer: Zala Orel
Production: BIEN 2025, Zavod Carnica – co-funded by GO! 2025
Co-production: ReThinkable 2025 (CVCS – Centro Volontari Cooperazione allo Sviluppo) and Pixxelpoint 2025 (Kulturni dom Nova Gorica)

The accompanying artist talk with Mateja Fajt, Cheap Silk – More-Than-Human Histories of Sericulture in the Slovenian Goriška Region, will take place on 25 October 2025, from 11:00 to 12:00, at the Auditorium of Friulian Culture (Via Roma 5, Gorizia), moderated by Zala Orel.
The talk offers a critical reflection on how sericulture, once a vital craft, mirrors the alienation and transformation of the fashion industry — from material production to simulation, from tangible labor to narrative economy.

Photography: Urban Cerjak
Support: Culture Ireland, Matej Drusany, Mach Legacy Society, Svet metraže
Additional note: Mateja Fajt’s article “Cheap Silk” was published in Fashion Highlight, No. 04/2024

More information: www.rethinkablefestival.com