AFRITEX

The project ‘Heritage in Filigree: Stories of Fabrics and Memories of Africa’ aims to promote the textile knowledge of Central and West Africa as living archives and levers for development. In response to the fragility of this heritage, the project proposes to document the materials, techniques and clothing customs of six countries (Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal and Chad). The activities planned for this project include:

• Field missions to document materials, processes, techniques and customs;
• An international symposium on the theme: Woven Heritage: Histories, Circulations and Reappropriations of Textile Heritage in Africa;
• A residency for young contemporary artist designers in the target countries;
• A digital platform to promote the archives resulting from the field missions;
• The production of a documentary film tracing the provenance of the textiles from symposium;
• And the publication of a collective reference work on textile provenance research.

The project promotes intergenerational transmission and community appropriation, going beyond a strictly aesthetic approach to place these textiles in their socio-cultural, political and spiritual contexts.