Weave Up! project
all about the project
Weave Up! project is a contribution to Creative Europe programme, set up by the European Commission to support initiatives that seek to preserve, promote and develop the diversity of European cultural heritage. It is established through the common work of an international consortium formed by the association HS_Projets, the cooperative society Ideias Emergentes and the Vilnius Academy of Arts.
These three entities are collaborating for two and a half years (from January 2023 to September 2025) on the Weave Up! project, financed by the European Union programme. Weave Up! aims to bring together future textile professionals and designers with the textile chain actors: breeders, farmers, craftsmen and textile companies and factories, while showing the diversity of textile production and its applications.
The 3 actors have chosen 4 emblematic textile materials of European heritage: linen, wool, leather & skins and textile cork. The plant or animal nature of the chosen materials requires multiple skills and knowledge, as does their transformation into fibres and textile materials, which requires a great deal of technological knowledge. The project proposes 1 residency and 1 workshop per material, The aim of the residencies is to discover the textile chain of linen, wool, leather & skins and textile cork, ant the workshops aim to improve one or two ecological skills of each of these materials. Residencies took place between June and July 2023, and workshops will be held in 2024 (between June and October)
Each fiber has its own dedicated residency and workshop. Each residency and workshop takes place with a team of 7 people. The results of this project are intended to be shown in a documentary and in the different events of the
consortium: Contextile 2024 (Guimarães, Portugal), FITE – Biennale Textile 2024 (Clermont-Ferrand, France) and exhibitions in the art galleries of the Vilnius Academy of Arts (Lithuania).
Through this funding, Creative Europe aims to improve access to European cultural and creative works and promote innovation and creativity.
Textile fibres
the beauty of fibres
The consortium
all for one!
A french association under the 190 law. Its aim is to promote the circulation of heritage objects, artists, researchers, designers and textile professionals. Since 2012, the association co-organises the FITE – Textile Biennial at Clermont-Ferrand (France) in even years and in another country of the world in odd years.
A non-profit cultural cooperative based in Porto (Portugal), which produces cultural projects in the fields of architecture, design, cinema and visual arts. Since 2012, Ideias Emergentes has been producing the contemporary textile art biennial Contextile in Guimarães (Portugal) and actively participating in the Magic Carpets platform, focused on the mobility of emerging artists, with 15 European partners.
The Vilnius Academy of Arts is the oldest and largest university art school in the Baltic region (founded in 1793). Bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral studies in the fields of art, design, architecture and art studies take place here. Faculties operate in different Lithuanian cities: Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda and Telšiai. More than
1,500 students study in them every year. The Vilnius Academy of Arts even has two textile departments, the “Textile Art and Design” department (in Vilnius) and the “Textile Art and Media” program (Kaunas). The Academy also has a network of galleries in all VAA faculties (textile gallery “Artifex”, exhibition space “Titanic ”, gallery “Academy”…). There is also a network of different workshops/laboratories from which one of the largest is Textile Laboratories. VAA cooperates with many higher art schools around the world, is a member of the most important art school networks and associations.
