milla novo renders her desert textile installation within a snowy alpine context

a textile installation imagined across landscapes

Milla Novo’s textile installation began in the Mleiha Desert in Sharjah and was later reimagined by the artist within a glass pavilion set against an Alpine snowfield.

The project, titled ‘From Desert Sand to Alpine Snow,’ centers on twenty hand-knotted fiber panels first commissioned for the Tanweer Festival in 2025. Installed in a 10 by 10 meter steel frame rising six meters high, the work stood directly on desert ground, its saturated colors vibrating against the pale sand and rocky escarpments of Mleiha.

Months later, the same tapestries were digitally placed within a transparent glass cube surrounded by snow and mountain peaks. The Alpine setting is a concept rendered with AI, while the textile installation itself remains entirely physical and hand crafted.

Milla Novo imagines her large-scale textile installation within an Alpine context | visualization © Milla Novo

milla novo’s Alpine Pavilion as Concept

In Milla Novo’s imagined Alpine version of the textile installation, a rectilinear glass structure frames a corridor of suspended macramé panels. Visitors enter through an arched opening and move between cascading fields of neon pink, marigold yellow, burnt orange, moss green, and sand toned rope. The panels stretch from ceiling to floor, their fringes hovering just above packed snow. Through the glass walls, ski lifts and distant ridgelines sit in quiet contrast to the dense texture inside.

The snowy images are renderings of the artist‘s existing work placed into a speculative architectural envelope. As the artist explained via social media, the structure shifts across images, yet the fiber pieces remain her own, always hand knotted and physically produced. The conceptual glass pavilion heightens the tension between warmth and cold, craft and precision engineering. It frames the textiles as if they were artifacts in a vitrine, while allowing the surrounding landscape to remain fully visible.

first physically installed in the UAE, the work comprises 20 hand-knotted fiber panels | visualization © Milla Novo

‘Ancestral Whispers’ in the Desert

Before the snowy reinterpretation, the textile installation was physically convceived under intense desert sunlight. Commissioned by Her Highness Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi for the Tanweer Festival, the work titled ‘Ancestral Whispers’ stood within a rust-colored steel frame planted directly into the sand. Each of the twenty panels was developed in Novo’s studio near Amsterdam using weather-resistant fibers and custom metallic rope.

Close up, the knots reveal dense, layered techniques. Repeating chevrons, diamond lattices, and scalloped drapes build relief across each surface. Some panels incorporate metallic strands that catch the sun, while others rely on thick cotton cords dyed in saturated hues. At the top of the frame, Novo’s emblem, a heart shaped flower known as Piwke Mapuche, references her Chilean and Mapuche heritage. This symbol situates the work within a lineage of ancestral weaving traditions.

colorful macramé contrasts with the white mountains | visualization © Milla Novo

a shift toward spatial environments

The desert installation responded directly to wind and temperature. Fibers shifted with passing gusts, casting intricate shadows across the sand. At its center hung a swing which invited visitors to sit within the field of color and texture. During the festival, people moved between panels, brushing against cords and gathering in conversation.

For Milla Novo, this marked a shift from wall-based pieces to spatial environments. Her practice sits between ancestral craft and contemporary design, and translates techniques learned from her mother into large-scale installations. It’s the shift into open landscapes which expands her medium beyond interior decoration and into the realm of installation art. The steel frame establishes a spatial boundary, while the woven panels define passage and enclosure.

the Alpine version is a rendering that places the real textiles into a snowy context | visualization © Milla Novo

the installation was commissioned for the Tanweer Festival in 2025 | image © Milla Novo

Ancestral Whispers took shape in the Mleiha Desert in Sharjah | image © Milla Novo

details reveal layered knots, metallic rope, and intricate patterning | image © Milla Novo

the two projects present a contrast, highlighting the textile works’ effects across contexts | image © Milla Novo

project info:

artist: Milla Novo | @milla_novo_

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