TILBURG.- The TextielMuseum in Tilburg will open Hella Jongerius – Smart Hands this autumn, a major exhibition dedicated to the textile work and design process of internationally renowned Dutch designer Hella Jongerius.

On view from October 31, 2026 through April 4, 2027, the exhibition offers visitors a rare look inside Jongerius’ creative world, showing how she thinks through textiles, experiments with materials, and connects craft, industry, color, and innovation.

Jongerius is widely recognized as one of the most influential Dutch designers working internationally. Her designs for companies such as IKEA, KLM, and Vitra have brought her work to audiences around the world, but textiles have always remained a central thread in her practice. Rather than treating textiles simply as surface or decoration, Jongerius uses them as a field of research — a place where handwork, technology, memory, and industrial production meet.

The exhibition has been made possible by Jongerius’ generous donation of her complete textile design and working archive to the TextielMuseum. That archive forms the heart of the presentation. Through samples, material studies, sketches, prototypes, and finished designs, visitors will be able to follow the development of ideas from first experiment to final object.





The title Smart Hands points to the intelligence of making. For Jongerius, design is not only a matter of concept, but also of touch, repetition, testing, and close attention to materials. The exhibition reveals how thinking and making are deeply connected in her practice, and how textiles allow ideas to be worked through in physical form.

Visitors will encounter colorful weaving experiments, fabric studies, furniture, scale models, and other works that show the range of Jongerius’ approach. Together, they trace a design process rooted in curiosity and precision, but also in the imperfections and discoveries that emerge through hands-on experimentation.

By presenting Jongerius’ archive, the TextielMuseum also highlights its own role as a place where textile heritage and contemporary design innovation come together. The museum is not only showing finished works, but opening up the process behind them — the research, trials, and decisions that shape internationally recognized design.

Hella Jongerius – Smart Hands invites audiences to see textile as a living language: one that carries tradition, embraces technology, and continues to generate new possibilities for design.

The exhibition opens at the TextielMuseum in Tilburg on October 31, 2026.