MONS.- A large exhibition bringing together exclusively Belgian artists opened its doors at the Old Slaughterhouses of Mons, Textilités. Initiated by BeCraft, in collaboration with the City of Mons and Les Drapiers, and curated by Denise Biernaux, the exhibition brings together 30 contemporary Belgian artists around a single medium, textile. With more than 60 works, ranging from specific productions to recent and old works, Textilités offers a wide panorama of contemporary Belgian creation.

The exhibition aims to foster the exploration of the concept, the meaning and the pertinence of textiles, the relationship between materials and forces, thereby upholding a form of “textility”.

To illustrate the subject, the works have been selected among artists living in Belgium for whom textiles is one of their driving forces, and where vital creative energy is as important as the finished form. The works exhibited will hold the symbolic, cultural and aesthetic values of their creators, as much artists as artisans.




The exhibition
It took centuries for mankind to develop and master weaving and knitting techniques. Little by little, textiles have followed the structural changes in our society and have been deployed in many different ways until now. On the one hand, as a conceptualised product, textiles have reinvented themselves by combining the resources provided by new technologies with the requirements of sustainable development. Smart textiles can now detect, store and transmit information. On the other hand, as a creative medium, textiles also offer greater scope to artists in the form of unexpected materials and new approaches. New concepts in textiles design have also been developed, thus raising an interesting question regarding contemporary art.

For textiles have gained a rightful place in the world of contemporary visual arts. As an art form, textiles are no longer to be seen as a finished product, but rather as a multi-directional thought process. To quote the anthropologist Tim Ingold: "Knots are always in the midst of things, while their ends are on the loose, rooting for other lines to tangle with"1. In other words, the language of textiles is “a living thing” rather than simply a form or material. The artist or craftsman is constantly on the move and his or her preoccupation "nis not the necessity of predetermination […] but a necessity born out of commitment and attention to materials and to the ways they want to go"2, as Ingold explains.

The design of “textile things” rather than “textile objects” as Tim Ingold sees it, best describes the work of current designers for whom the finished work is the combined result of contingencies and forces, rather than an object which stands before us as an accomplishment, occupied rather than inhabited3.

Artists
Esther Babulik, BedrossianServaes, Marianne Berenhaut, Tatiana Bohm, Chevalier Masson, Hannah De Corte, Catherine de Launoit, Laurence Dervaux, Lili Desrues, Mathilde D’hooge, Jot Fau, Javier Fernandez, Dolorès Gossye, Daniel Henry, Jean-Pierre Husquinet, Julie Krakowski, Jean Pierre Muller, objects.projects., Leïla Pile, Elfie Poiré, Céline Prestavoine, Marianne Reding, Klaas Rommelaere, Diane Steverlynck, Charlotte Stuby, Linda Topic, Hélène Van Spaendonck, Graziella Vruna, Emma Van Roey et Claire Williams. Curator: Denise Biernaux


1. HEIDEGGER, Martin, "The Thing", dans Poetry, Language, Thought, Harperperennial Modern Classics, New York, 1971, pp. 161-180.
2. INGOLD, Tim, "La vie dans monde sans objets" [trad. JAOUËN Françoise], Perspectives [en ligne], 1 | 2016, pp. 13-20, mis en ligne le 31 décembre 2017,consulté le 30 janvier 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/perspective/6255 3. Ibidem.