Textile, 290 x 560 cm.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp / Collection Flemish Community (Inv. no. BK7732_M481).

This tapestry is a woven interpretation of a photographic image constructed from press photographs taken at the artist’s exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. For the Whitechapel, Macuga borrowed the tapestry version of Picasso’s Guernica from the UN building in New York and installed it in the gallery where it became the backdrop for meetings by various groups, public speeches and community events. The tapestry shown in this exhibition depicts an address given in front of the Guernica tapestry by Prince William, and is a critique by the artist of her own work and how its political meaning came to be circumvented. It also reflects a history of royal tapestry workshops, and the how the depiction of royal appearances where often communicated through this medium.