People often look into things such as food, music, and traditions when they want to revisit different phases in our contemporary society – rarely do people remember the power of fabric. Daily items such as towels, sheets, and garments can well represent our everyday life, and they have the potential to bring social impact to different communities. In the TECHSTYLE series, MILL6 has decided to explore the “textile intervention over multiple phases in our contemporary society”. As told by Mizuki Takahashi, Co-Director of MILL6 Foundation, TECHSTYLE series is a “very unique platform… (that) embod(ies) our organization’s vision to offer an exciting opportunity to debate contemporary agendas, reaching out to wider audiences through de-categorizing textiles, arts, and culture.”
Composed with a series of discussion forums and a retrospective exhibition, the annual Two-Part Programme TECHSTYLE Series 2.0 which will kickstart on the 9th of December, is co-presented with the Institute of Textiles and Clothing at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Aiming to “explore new meaning, experience, and innovation in textile arts”, the event will include “Fabpublic! – Talking about Textile, Community and Public Space” and “Self-Organisation: Junichi Arai’s Textile Anthology”.
The prior mentioned is a two-day forum which is headlined by “Spanish designer Alvaro Catalán de Ocón, Founder of PET Lamp, an upcycling anthropological project accentuating preservation of craft knowledge and tradition; and Venezuela born architect Aura Luz Melis, Partner of Inside Outside”, will address four different topics including:
1) Why Community matters? What are we weaving?
2) Is community generated or fabricated?
3) Artistic intervention into community and space
4) How can museums weave the relationship between textile history and the audience? Featuring leading voices from around the world, including speakers from Goldsmiths, University of London, Bluecoat (UK), ArtEZ University of the Arts (Netherlands), TextielMuseum (Netherlands), ZeroStation (Vietnam), Policy for Sustainability Lab at The University of Hong Kong (HK), Lingnan University (HK) and others.
As for the latter, Japanese artist Junichi Arai’s works will be celebrated. Known for creating “pieces that combine contemporary Western technologies with Eastern methodologies” with collaborations done with names such as Issey Miyake and Rei Kawakubo; his avant-garde style was bred from his strong knowledge background with weaving and yarn. Expressing this knowledge through advanced computer programming where he manipulates the “properties of fabric into sculptures of unparalleled innovation”, his experimental approach has dubbed him the name of a “dream weaver”. His works are able to offer “an immersive experience into the sensorial, textural, and visual inner world of the artist.”
Gathering “internationally renowned artists, designers, textile specialists, curators, scholars and cultural practitioners from a wide range of disciplines and expertise” for this event, do join them to learn about how the medium of fabric is able to energize and reactivate communities.
TECHSTYLE Series 2.1: Fabpublic! – Talking about Textile, Community and Public Space
Saturday and Sunday, 9-10 December 2017
Registration 13:30; Discussion 14:00 – 18:30
TU107, Lu Guan Qiu Lecture Theater, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
TECHSTYLE Series 2.2: Self-Organisation: Junichi Arai’s Textile Anthology Exhibition
Venue 1: The Fashion Gallery, MN109, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
11 December 2017 – 28 February 2018
Monday to Sunday 10:00 –19:00
Venue 2: Innovation Gallery, Jockey Club Innovation Tower, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
15 December 2017 – 26 January 2018
Monday to Sunday 10:00 –19:00
