Cravaticum Boutique Museum of the Cravat. Exhibition dates: 7 March – 30 April, 2026.
Roses of Ties is a participatory exhibition by Swedish artist L. Christeseva, unfolding across countries and cities as artworks are created collectively around the world, with women serving as active agents of peacebuilding, cultural diplomacy, and social repair. At its core lies learning and the shared experience of how femininity is reshaped through war, migration, and solidarity.
The project is supported primarily by communities and civil society – by those who believe that we can transform evil and pain into hope – Roses of Ties. Today, many people wear Roses of Ties as a symbol close to the heart, carrying hope and believing in the capacity to heal the world. Recently, L.Christeseva received a large tie donation from the Swedish Parliament.
In Zagreb, L.Christeseva has invited fashion students, led by Assistant Professor Ivana Mrčela and Associate Professor Lea Popinjac from the Department of Textile and Clothing Design at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Textile Technology, to contribute to the exhibition.
By bringing together participants from across Europe whose lives have been shaped by war, migration, and militarization, in dialogue with Swedish women rooted in a feminist and peace-oriented context, L.Christeseva directs Roses of Ties as a living, polyphonic exhibition. It is not a closed narrative but an open invitation. Each new participant adds voice, hands, and story. Every rose becomes part of a growing archive of lived experience, mapping women’s journeys across migration routes, conflict zones, and cultural borders.
How many roses will it take? How long will it take? Can women, through their hands and craft, fill the world with these noble roses? Can the gentle power of femininity expressed in patience, care, and creation shape a world of hope? And can craft – offering no material reward, yet healing the soul – become a quiet form of feminism, changing the world one rose at a time?
The exhibition is curated by Louise Wallenberg (Stockholm University).
