The artist:
Beatriz Schaaf-Giesser, born in Montevideo / Uruguay in 1961, trained as a hand weaver and completed her textile design studies with a diploma. As an award-winning designer, she worked for the industry and designed carpet collections, before becoming a freelance textile artist in her own studio in 1991.
Since 1994 the focus of her work has shifted continuously away from commissioned works for industry and towards free, artistic works. Exhibitions (DHW, GEDOK Stuttgart, Landesausstellung Baden-Württemberg), regular workshops and seminars in Germany and abroad, various publications and international awards document Beatriz Schaaf-Giesser’s artistic development. She is member of the visual artists’ association (VBKW) and the association of craftsmen, (Bund der Kunsthandwerker)
Beatriz Schaaf-Giesser uses almost exclusively wool, fabric, hair and bound newspaper, which she reassembles and reinterprets by felting, dyeing and layering. In this way, she creates not only two-dimensional but also three-dimensional projects: in 2003 she began working on felt sculptures and wall reliefs. The commuting between Uruguay and Germany, between two mentalities, two worlds, is increasingly becoming the content of the artistic work. Since 2008 she has been teaching at the newly founded felt school in Oberrot.In 2009 she received the 1st prize at the 5th Bienal Internacional de Arte Textil (World Textile Art) in Buenos Aires/Argentina for her work “Bewahren” (Preserve).
In 2017 she was a guest artist at the 7th Int. Bienal Internacional de Arte Textil Contemporáneo, WTA,
Montevideo Uruguay, with a walk-in installation “The obvious and the hidden“
In 2020, in connection with the Covid 19 pandemic, she launched an international call for the project “Let our hands speak”.