During this atelier participants invest in different ways of up-cycling textile waste and used clothes. Together, they engage with notions of identity, and feed conversations of our inner world with the environment and communities we are part of. Participants are invited to engage with several textile design techniques, such as embroidery, garment construction, pattern making, weaving and patchwork. From this creative process they will make new baskets and wearables for the community.
By up-cycling post-consumer textiles collected from and around Sanem, the atelier aims to engage critically and creatively with this cycle. Working with materials such as textile waste and left-overs from production, the participants are invited to speculate on how our relationship with products and materials can be more sustainable and meaningful.
“Post consumer or second hand clothes can actually be problematic; many of the clothes we think we donate by putting them in textile containers in Europe are often sold to African countries. While the shipping of the large amounts of textiles causes a carbon footprint, in addition they cause trouble on site, like in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The imported clothes are so cheap that the local textile factories and self-employed tailors can't compete and loose their work and heritage.
By upcycling post-consumer textiles collected from in and around Sanem we reflected on how to engage ourselves differently. We are facing big environmental and social issues due to overproduction and consumer waste and need to find other ways of dealing with what is around us. During our atelier we created new wearables for the community with textile-waste and left-overs from production, and we imagined how our relationship with products and materials can be more sustainable and meaningful in the future.”
A collaboration between Fadi Jaafar (coordinator), Ayoub, Joshian Mangen, Samira Mousa, Julina Vanille Bezold, Samira Vogel. A Gadder Museum, Belvaux