Fabric of being | Video Mapping Festival #8| Lille, France | 2025

Visuals and animation Rita Reis | Soundtrack Gabriel Neves | Production Rencontres Audiovisuelles

With the support of the Hauts-de-France Region, DRAC Hauts-de-France, Métropole Européenne de Lille, the City of Lille and Crédit Mutuel Nord Europe.

 

This project proposes a reflection on the textile tradition as a cultural heritage of the territories and the decisive role played by women in its preservation.
The textiles, like any piece of art, are testimonies of the distinct cultural identities of each territory, of collective memories but also of individual narratives of their artisans: what endures, what distinguishes us, what unites us, the territory we occupy.

In patriarchal societies where almost all cultural heritage is defined by men and developed in their image, the textile tradition is often the only opportunity for women to gain voice and visibility, and to build a place of autonomy and freedom that allows them to express themselves, their reality and their lives: multiple layers of meanings expressed in shapes, colors, techniques, hues that function as a social support structure. Weaving, embroidery, crochet, fabrics are testimonies of narratives that keep societies together, functioning as an
aggregating skin.

Fabric of being focus on the communicative and expressive potencial of textiles, essencial to support societies : as personal and collective memory, as embodied collective knowledge, and also as the body’s open-ended script that highlights human life and women’s struggle.