On 8 October at 7 pm, the exhibition Woven Collections – Tapestries from the Diehl and NMMU Collections will open at the Octagon (NMMU), in a collaboration between the National Museum of Modern Art and Kunsthaus Dahlem in Berlin. The exhibition continues the partnership between the two institutions, following the presentation of When Politics Strategised Aesthetics in Berlin from March to June this year.
According to Branko Franceschi, Director of the National Museum of Modern Art, who is co-curating the exhibition with Dorothee Schöne, Director of Kunsthaus Dahlem, this is a fully developed form of inter-institutional collaboration, bringing together two collections and two distinct collecting strategies. In the case of the NMMU, the collection reflects acquisitions that institutionally registered the growing interest in tapestry during the 1960s and 1970s. The Diehl Collection, by contrast, represents a focused collecting interest driven by personal engagement and a passion for an artistic medium which, despite its exceptional examples, never attained the popularity of more narrowly defined artistic disciplines such as painting and sculpture.

The exhibition features works by Jagoda Buić, Zofia Butrymowicz, Charles Chamot, Giga Dile Đuragić, Danica Franić, Marta Gąsienica-Szostak, Latica Ivanišević, Ritzi Jacobi, Ritzi & Peter Jacobi, Christa Jeitner, Zofia Matuszczyk-Cyganska, Goranka Murtić, Jolanta Owidzka, Mariana Pende, Mariette Rousseau-Vermette, Wojciech Sadley and Jasenka Tučan.

The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue in Croatian and English, featuring texts by Branko Franceschi, Dorothee Schöne, collection curator Klaudija Kudinova and Berlin gallerist Volker Diehl, as well as biographies of the artists. The catalogue has been designed by Ana Zubić.

The exhibition has been made possible with financial support from the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia and the City Office for
Culture and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb and will remain open until 8 November 2026.

GORANKA VRUS MURTIĆ:  Tapestry, 1972. wool; 260 x 140 cm cm inv. br. MG-3463 / Photo  NMMU archives / JAGODA BUIĆ: From the Sun, 1963. horizontal weaving, wooL; 285 x 104 cm, inv. br. MG-2614 , Photo: NMMU archives/ WOJCIECH SADLEY: Infanta braided, macrame, sisal; 160 x 50 cm © Collection Diehl, Berlin, 1974. / archive Diehl Collection/ RITZI & PETER JACOBI, Small Vertical Relief, 1974-75., horsehair, goat hair; 240 x 100 x 20 cm © Collection Diehl / Wojnowski. Photo by: Marcus Schneider