The Ministry of Economy, Industry and Innovation is promoting Las Jornadas this weekend in Chantada (Lugo). The Future of Weaving: Contemporary Textile Practices, is dedicated to the presentation, discussion and reflection of work connected to textile creation from different perspectives, such as crafts, fashion, science, textile art, new materials, recycled materials or natural fibers combined with concrete in geographical areas. During the opening of the meeting, Manuel Heredia, General Director of the Department of Trade and Consumption, highlighted that this initiative opens a new line for the Autonomous Administration to support crafts and more creative, artistic and intersectional experiences. Craft techniques play a relevant role.
Heredia also pointed out that the choice of the venue for the conference in the Portuguese village of San Cristóbal de Mauricios (Santada) – Espacio Vilaseco – was related to the aims of this new work. Contemporary creation with our roots, our trades and our countryside.
The conferences are organized by the Fundación Artesanía de Galicia in collaboration with Espacio Vilaseco and moderated by Lala de Dios, weaver, art historian, researcher and Oficio y Arte and Association for Textile Creation. They have a presence of 19 experts from fields such as sustainable fashion, handicrafts and craft techniques, and contemporary art created in conceptual and abstract frameworks or linked to textiles.
Programming
The conference kicked off this morning with a conference by Dutch artist and product designer Simone Post, which focuses on preserving artisanal knowledge and sustainability. Simone Post uses leftover materials and processes them in an artisanal and laborious way to create new aesthetic products with eternal value. Passionate about experimenting with colors, processes and techniques, he makes surprising use of leftover materials from companies such as Adidas, Quadrat and Vlisco.
Subsequent interventions are divided into four thematic schedules, two today, Saturday and the other two Sunday morning. The first table is dedicated to the work of various artisan workshops, including Artesania de Galicia, the Madrid workshop Carmen17, Pelategui Reguero (Cambrae) – which combines fashion design for art with its artisan clothing brand – and Sevillian Hilando. El Tiempo specializes in contemporary creations using the hook technique; and will be managed by Elena Fabeiro, manager of the Artesanía de Galicia Foundation.
The second table, focusing on the relationship between crafts and fashion, will have the participation of Félix de Martín (Ourense), an artisan specializing in hats, Artesania de Galicia, Silvia Calvo (Barcelona), a sustainable fashion brand that uses recycled fabric. and Raquel Buj (Madrid), specialized in experimenting with the combination of new materials and crafts, digital production and bio-production. The discussion will be moderated by Monica Rey Cabezudo, postdoctoral researcher in the history of fashion at the Universities of Santiago and Vigo.
The third table, already on Sunday, is dedicated to the link between textiles, art and science and embroidery Carmen M. Visual artist and experimental researcher will participate in Castañeda (Madrid), artist and designer Elisa Cuesta (Madrid). (Asturias / Madrid), which operates at the intersection between art, design and science, and is created by Luz Moreno Pinart (Madrid/Paris), expert in the relationship of textile fibers with architecture and nature and finalist of the Lowe Craft Prize 2023 Lola Topico, Fashion Design at the University of Vigo and The Director of the Master’s Degree in Creative Direction ESDEMGA will be responsible for facilitating this discussion.
The last of the tables will focus on indigenous materials and present various projects on the recovery of textile fibers, such as Miriam Vilaseco and Manuel Rodríguez Calvino’s “Vilaseco in the Village: Handlooms and Art”; Mudur Belts, encouraged by Lorita Sails to recover the native wool of Carranza (Biscay); Or British artisan fabric brand Morne Textiles, whose director Mario Sierra will speak. This schedule will be moderated by Lala de Dios.
In addition to these days, on Monday, October 2 and Tuesday, October 3, a special workshop on fiber knitting with the ply-splitting technique will be held in the same Espacio Vilaseco, taught by British creator Helen Leaf. In this process, the basics of this technique will be explored, working in the round, weaving decorative motifs and borders; Participants will braid, weave and create baskets from linen, cotton, paper and wool. The course, attended by 12 Galician artisans, will run from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm and from 3:30 pm to 7:30 pm.
