Textile Touches of Escape and Migration

WHO

This invitation goes out explicitly to all persons who feel themselves touched at an emotional level by issues of escape, migration and integration and who feel a calling to become active initiators of change. Persons who want to open up their own lived experiences to others. People who are prepared to put their own viewpoint up for inspection and be willing to change themselves. People who care about others.

• artists, costume designers, fashion designers, dancers, actors and poets, as well as students in these disciplines
• All interested members of the general public
• Persons with or without a background as refugees
• Individuals, teams and collectives

WHAT/submissions are accepted for

• Garment artworks that can be put on by visitors as part of the traveling exhibit and supporting program
• Performances by flash mobs or as part of the supporting events
• Poems to be read as part of a flash mob or the supporting events

WHERE and WHEN to submit your art work

• Text and Performance by email: : project@textile-touches.de
• Clothing artwork by post or submitted in person:
  Atelier Irene Schüller, Tellstr. 15, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
• Artwork can be submitted ongoing.
• Please coordinate the date of shipment with us.

HOW to submit

• Each application must include a filled-out form!
• Please include a text about the artistic work and/or it about yourself.

Condition of the garment

• Any submitted garment must be robust enough to be put on and taken off by visitors.
• Each garment requires a sewn label providing information about the producer (name, origin, profession, age, gender, title of the artwork).
• Where necessary, instructions on how the garment should be worn, and whether assistance is needed to do so, should be provided.

POINTS OF INSPIRATION / INTERSECTION / INVESTIGATION

On escape / migration

• How can I express escape in textile form?
• How can I convey my emotions through a garment?
• What traces does escape leave behind?
• What textiles recount (my) departure or (my) change?
• What shape can content take on in exploring the theme of escape?
• What silhouette does migration assume?
• What color is escape? Which color stands for which feeling or experience related to escape?
• Which textiles do refugees receive from aid organizations? / What textiles have I received? To what extent were you helped? / To what extent was I helped?
• What exactly touches me emotionally here? What have I personally experienced?

On integration

• Which emotions arise in me during encounters with people dressed differently than myself?
• What expectations and desires do I have for others, and what interest in those others is triggered through their clothing?
• What do I expect from myself in this context? What expectations do I have in my handling of my own thoughts and emotions?
• Which shape, color and feel of a textile garment would reflect successful integration? How about unsuccessful integration?

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN THE COLLECTION OF LIFE VESTS

Because I receive an endless supply of office shirts at no cost, I began wondering what I could do with them. One woman in Moria explained to me that black clothes are particularly helpful while fleeing to safety, since you can hide better by night. The form was intended to depict a life vest, the quintessential symbol of flight over the Mediterranean Sea. I colored the shirts black, so that the fabric could serve as the starting point for vests. Because I used a plant-based dye, the result was more purple than black. As it happens, purple as a symbolic color for transformation proved an even more appropriate theatrical statement for this project. Seamstress Inessa Reifschneider sewed an initial version of the vest to serve as a prototype.

Those interested in taking part in serial production of purple life vests are invited to bring dyed, pre-worn office shirts to the studio. You are naturally welcome to perform the dyeing yourself (please use only plant-based dyes). Experience dictates that used shirts can be found in any second-hand store.

SUBMISSION FORM