Can you fix what is destroyed? The reality we live in is unstable, so is there anything that can lead us towards a better future? The 18th International Triennial of Textile, Deconstruction/Reconstruction, marries two seemingly contrary yet closely linked terms. While the repair requires identifying the causes of the destruction, artists attempt to convince us that deconstruction can be a source of reconstruction, where renewal is based on mutual listening, acceptance, and cooperation.
Sixty-eight works selected from more than 1,600 submissions are presented on three floors of the former factory building in which the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź now resides. Among the selected projects, the central place is occupied by the exploration – literal and metaphorical – of the concepts of identity and belonging, religion and tradition, colonialism and the erasure of history, migration, class and economic issues, the invisibility of women’s work, war, conflict and trauma, as well as questions about contemporary Western values. For instance, along with such a broad exploration of themes, some works revive indigenous textile traditions, while others apply traditional weaving knowledge to digital media.
The exhibition is curated by Marta Kowalewska, representing the Museum, and Bukola Oyebode-Westerhuis, an independent writer, editor, and curator, whose perspective has contributed a distinctly international and broader context to the project, as well as a stronger representation of African artists, and a clear emphasis on themes related to women’s experiences, stories, and creative practices. Thanks to this, the Triennial has gained a more polyphonic character, covering a wide spectrum of narratives rooted in various cultural traditions.
Matter of tradition
Textiles have accompanied humans for a long time, serving both a practical and symbolic function, becoming a carrier of memory, a record of rituals, and a testimony to the relationship between humans and the world. The authors of many presented projects engage in a dialogue with tradition, treating it not as a reclusive legacy, but as a dynamic material that still shapes our current sensibilities. For example, Nomin Zezegmaa’s work The Endless Space from the World of the Sun to the World of the Dark (2024) is a circle woven from horsehair that references Mongolian shamanic cosmogony. Four black and four white pearls indicate the cardinal directions and symbolise light and darkness. The work is complemented by Whispers of Eej Mod (2024), a cyanotype capturing the shadow of a sacred tree, serving as both a contemporary epitaph and a record of a fleeting presence.
“Textiles have accompanied humans for a long time, serving both a practical and symbolic function, becoming a carrier of memory, a record of rituals, and a testimony to the relationship between humans and the world.”
Also reaching for the culture and traditions of their native regions, other artists acknowledge contemporary issues at the same time. In their installation, Resisting capitalism and imperialism since 5 centuries (2025), Atelier Ndokette combines fragments of traditional costumes from the West African region with contemporary souvenirs from China, creating an evocative commentary on global cultural flow. Chathuri Nissansala reconstructs sculptures saved from war damage in Sri Lanka, repairing them with the traditional Sri Lankan bead embroidery techniques used to create ceremonial costumes. Łukasz Wojtanowski, on the other hand, uses embroidery and sequins to interpret the Corpus Christi procession, a ritual deeply rooted in Polish tradition. Rather than focusing on the religious aspect, the artist highlights the visual splendour of the fabrics and the ritual itself.
The issue of lost heritage is raised in Oscar Lara’s project Within Heritage Movements (2013-2021), in which he reconstructs Paracas textiles that were stolen from Peru and kept in Sweden. Thanks to the artist, they were returned to their country of origin. The artwork emphasises the need for critical reflection on the history of museum collections. Likewise, Siu Vasquez creates a fabric inspired by a Muisca cultural artefact stored in the British Museum, pointing to the tension between local memory and institutional ownership.
Moving borders
The legacy of colonialism is not limited to objects stored in museums, but also includes stories of migration, forced displacement and erased biographies, which have left a lasting mark on the structure of contemporary societies. Biento di Seit (“Wind of the South”; 2025) by Alydia Wever and Ryan Oduber, an Amsterdam-based artistic duo originally from Aruba, is a dress made specifically for the exhibition from fabric and plant fibres, shells, and other materials that can be carried by the ocean. This way, they refer to Dutch ships transporting slaves from the Caribbean and highlight the fragility of the memory of these events.
Meanwhile, in her work Of Palimpsests & Erasure #3/3 (2021), Patricia Kaersenhout juxtaposes an entomological drawing by Maria Sybilla Merian with the figure of a Surinamese indigenous woman, pointing to the unspoken presence of female slaves, without whose labour and knowledge Merian would not have been able to conduct her research on nature. The work exposes the mechanisms of erasure that continue to shape European narratives of the history of science. Jacobo Alonso’s textile, UN – Safe Migration (2024), featuring a cut-out text from a United Nations document, references contemporary migration. The monumental negative of the document becomes a commentary on the ineffectiveness of declarations intended to protect migrants and refugees and materialises the shortcomings of procedures and politics.
The theme of migration leads to the question of what a home actually is. Joy Weinberger’s and Vanessa Amoah Opoku’s work, Bricks and Cement Don’t Make a House (2024), addresses Opoku’s family history. Her father left Ghana but was obliged to build a house there, even though he never returned. The installation, consisting of fabric, video, and metal construction, becomes a multi-layered story about a sense of duty, returns that never occurred, and homes that exist only as an obligation or memory.
The power of cooperation
Also, in the face of political, social, and ecological crises, community becomes not only a survival strategy but also a tool for building new relationships and practices of resistance. As such, Rufina Bazlova’s work, created as part of the #FramedInBelarus project (2021-ongoing), was made thanks to the solidarity of people who, through joint embroidery, manifested their opposition to political repression. A similar idea of community action is being developed by the HANDWORK studio, which, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, invited participants to collectively embroider a poem by Halyna Kruk.
The Tibbetts Estuary Tapestry: A Community Embroidered Climate Solution (2023) by Ana de la Cueva and Matthew López-Jensen is a community embroidery project created in collaboration with 95 people from the Bronx and other parts of New York City. Referring to the planned revitalisation of urban areas, the work documents the state of a specific space and, at the same time, expresses the community’s vision for its ecological revitalisation. Eliza Proszczuk’s Sister Tablecloth is in a similar vein – an embroidered fabric created during workshops dedicated to the idea of sisterhood. Its form, seemingly mundane, takes on symbolic significance, becoming a material record of conversations, meetings, and gestures of solidarity between women.
Contemporary identities
Artists use the medium of textile to unveil what is often invisible or marginalised: women’s labour, experiences of corporeality, and the complexity of contemporary identities. Delia Rößer’s Choreography of Work (2024) focuses on the invisible work of women who keep digital systems running. The tapestry depicts a feminist attempt to map the history of technology, while the accompanying video presents the gestures of women working in the electronics industry and weaving mills. The female issue resonates particularly strongly in the works of Iwona Demko, In the Beginning There Was a Slit and Feminism(s), based on a sketch by Maria Pinińska-Bereś. The artist deconstructs the meanings attributed to female genitalia, while her reinterpretation of Pinińska-Bereś’s sketch draws attention to the polyphonic, hybrid nature of feminist movements. Gender and identity are both highly emotive issues in public discourse.
Additionally, works such as COMECHIFFONES #1 (2023) by the duo Chiachio & Giannone or Tucking (2022) and Conductive Wire (2020) by Tales Frey show how diverse contemporary models of relationships and families can be. On the other hand, Małgorzata Żerwe’s Wyszywanki (“Stitches”; 2024) or Carmen Shabracq’s Migrating Roots III (2024) emphasise the vital role of family and the memory of ancestors. While Her Stage (II) (2024) by Aziza Kadyri makes use of modern technology, combining her grandmother’s gestures with traditional Uzbek dance movements to make her grandmother’s unfulfilled dream of becoming a dancer come true. By merging memories and personal stories into a new reality, the artist creates a space where historical and social conditions do not determine her ancestor’s life.
Overall, the International Triennial of Textile proves that fabric can be one of the most profound and multi-dimensional tools for telling stories across cultures, traditions, and social contexts. Just like that, various artists from around the world show that deconstruction brings out great potential for creating something new. Reconstruction does not mean returning to what once was, but rather building new layers of meaning, relationships, and history.
The exhibition becomes a space where we are not only asked to see, but also listen to what the materials, weaves, gestures, and experiences of the artists say to us, also constituting a reminder that change – social, cultural, political – requires dialogue and openness to diversity. Deconstruction/Reconstruction is therefore more than just the title – an invitation to reflect on how we want to weave our common future.
“Overall, the International Triennial of Textile proves that fabric can be one of the most profound and multi-dimensional tools for telling stories across cultures, traditions, and social contexts.”
The 18th International Triennial of Textile
October 11, 2025 – April 12, 2026
The Central Museum of Textiles, Łódź
Supported by Centralne Muzeum Włókiennictwa.
