When Lotta from Just Africa mentioned about an upcoming exhibition to be held in Sweden that she would be involved in I couldn’t wait to hear more!
The exhibition entitled Black Thread, along with the French Institute in Sweden, is a collaboration between the Museums of World Culture and their project Ongoing Africa, and the powerhouses at Marché Noir, the kings of creativity and dapper style – Art Comes First, the amazing design talent Imane Ayissi who knows a thing or two about the woven African cloth, and the aforementioned Just Africa trailblazing for showcasing and bringing African fashion to Sweden.
Black Thread is said to explore and develop dialogue that is aimed to enhance new perspectives on the African continent with and by Swedes of African origin.
For example the exhibition design recalls Agbozume which is a massive market in Ghana near the Togo border that has long been a regional trade center for textiles and clothing. Marché Noir founder Amah Ayivi regularly visits the Agbozume market to get inspiration and source handmade fabrics and second-hand clothes. He transforms these into garments for the Paris market.
Black Thread follows West Africa’s ancient dynamic textile traditions to today’s designers. The exhibition’s Paris-based co-creators Marché Noir and Imane Ayissi have creations that follow the thread back to West Africa’s weavers, tailors, markets, colours, materials, and cuts. These designers / brands are making big impressions on the international and they have done this by going beyond the image of printed fabrics – the waxprint and ankara, which is seen as typically African.
This awesome exhibition is a must attend which showcases contemporary fashion designers of African origin, as well as classic textiles from the collections of the Museums of World Culture.
Black Thread opens October 10 at the Museum of World Culture. Part of the Black Thread exhibition is displayed in Stockholm at the Museum of Ethnography.
See more here: https://www.varldskulturmuseet.se/en/exhibitions/black-thread/
Photography by Robert Preston
