A thread can connect, pass through, hold together, and become part of the weave. It can be a real object and, at the same time, become a symbol of something unseen.
The workshop led by Sarolta Szulyovszky stems from her research for *Hilara: The Little Girl Who Knew How to Be Free*, an unpublished book project written by Chiara Lossani and presented as part of the exhibition *Le Immagini della Fantasia 44*. In the illustrations accompanying the story of Trosia Hilara—a wool worker who lived in Aquileia in the 1st century B.C.—the thread guides the narrative and becomes a metaphor for life, transformation, and the attainment of freedom.
Building on this experience, the illustrator will guide participants in their search for their own symbolic element: an object, a shape, or a symbol capable of appearing across a brief sequence of images and shifting in meaning through relationships, contexts, and transformations.
Sketches, associations, and experimentation will guide the development of the narrative. We will work with acrylics, collage, monotype, and marks created with various tools, while also leaving room for the unexpected and the possibilities offered by the materials.
Over the course of the two days, each participant will create a short visual sequence, aiming not to tell the whole story, but to let the images—and the thread that runs through them—suggest a story.
Illustration by Sarolta Szulyovszky, Hilara: la bambina che sapeva essere libera, unpublished project.