Bonds Per Stitch quilt by Regina Kelly. Photo courtesy of Rucha Kulkarni 7 Oct –
17 Nov 2026
Exhibition: Bonds Per Stitch
On show at Stadsloket Oost from 7 October to 13 November 2026, Framer Framed presents Bonds Per Stitch, a participatory textile project by artist Rucha Kulkarni. Initiated in Amsterdam with women whose lives have been shaped by migration, the project explores home as an affective, shifting condition – shaped by memory, relationships, loss, adaptation and belonging.
Rooted in the traditional Indian practice of Godhari quilting, Bonds Per Stitch brings together oral histories, diasporic memories, and used and collected fabrics. Godhari’s histories of reuse, domestic labour and collective making provide a vocabulary through which to think about migration, memory and belonging.
During the project’s development, participants took part in a ‘quilt talk’ with Kulkarni, culminating in a dialogue between two quilts – one made by the participant and one by Kulkarni. The relationship between artist and participant becomes part of the artistic process, with the participant becoming an active contributor to its making, meaning and direction.
Through Bonds Per Stitch, Kulkarni and her participants ask: what does it mean to belong? And how is a sense of home formed when the place we inhabit is not necessarily the place we once called home? The project asks how personal histories and lived experiences might enter shared cultural space without being reduced to a single narrative of migration.
These questions connect to Henri Lefebvre’s notion of the ‘right to the city’, which understands inhabitants as participants in its social and symbolic life. In this context, Bonds Per Stitch considers how personal histories can become part of shared cultural space, and how belonging is negotiated through relationships with people and with one another’s histories.
The quilt thus becomes both a record of encounter and a proposition for listening – an invitation to consider how belonging is negotiated, shared and continually made.
The project brings together Mo Chen, Neyde Lantyer, Ijlal Taous, Regina Kelly, Linnemore Nefdt, Pradnya Parasakar, Ossa Kierkegaard and Dejana Vuckovic Simovic. Their stories and perspectives remain distinct; the quilts hold these differences together without attempting to produce a unified account of migration or belonging.
The presentation takes place at the Municipality Office of Amsterdam East (Stadsloket Oost), next to Framer Framed.
Info & Credits
Opening Times
7 October – 13 November 2026
Mon – Fri, 09:00-17:00
Thu until 21:00
Location
Stadsloket Oost
Oranje-Vrijstaatplein 2
Amsterdam
Free entry, pay what you can.
Framer Framed is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; and the Municipality of Amsterdam.
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Migration / Textile /