Reutlingen, Bilbao, New York - Stoll, Germany’s leading 3D knitting machinery company, has played a key role in the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao’s new exhibition, Architecture Effects.

Stoll's consultancy, knit-creation, and manufacturing skills were used for the co-creation and production of the textile element of MOS Architects’ A Tent Without A Signal, a digitally manufactured flat-bed knitted tapestry.

The exhibit is on view from December 5th, 2018 to April 28th, 2019.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao’s co-curators, Troy Conrad Therrien and Manuel Cirauqui, explained how the exhibition’s purpose was to exemplify “the connections between art and architecture at the height of unique 21st century conditions” by highlighting the impact technology has on a time of major digital transformations, social media, artificial intelligence and climate change.

“Braided with metallic fibres, MOS’s tent doubles as a Faraday cage for the future, scrambling forthcoming 5G mobile signals,” says Therrien. “It embodies a nomadic typology but denies its traditional formless slack in favour of a taught lofting between two archetypal symbols in plan — the cross and the circle — by means of a digitally flat-bed knitted futuristically fluorescent tapestry, completed in collaboration with groundbreaking textile technology maker, Stoll.”

Therrien added that A Tent Without A Signal was made possible with unique Stoll machinery and knitting innovation due to the complexities and intricate details of the piece. The artwork was knitted on Stoll’s CMS 530 HP in a gauge of E16 and consisted of twenty-four 1m x 6m knitted panels. The five-coloured jacquard with mesh pointelle panels were knitted with high tech Filati Be.Mi.Va, Pinori Filati and Statex yarns.

“We are proud to collaborate with the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao for MOS’ project, A Tent Without A Signal," said Joerg Hartmann, Head of Fashion & Technology at Stoll. "The Architecture Effects exhibition was a natural fit for us as our Knitelligence platform, and its various software solutions, continues to flourish in this Industry 4.0, digital age. There are so many capabilities of knitting that tend to go unnoticed, and we are very excited that the community can be witness to Stoll’s impact within the architecture industry.”

A case study of MOS’ A Tent Without A Signal and Stoll’s contribution will become available to the public and the contemporary artists and architects exhibiting as a part of Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Stoll’s collaboration.