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TXT (Textile)

TEXTILE | TEXT | CONTEXT

The textile department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie is called TXT, short for textile and text. Both words derive from the latin verb tessere, which means 'to weave'. TXT has developed an ongoing investigation in combining material explorations with cultural research. Students are inventing new ways to apply techniques like weaving, felting, knitting and printing into readable assemblages. These experiments result in a variety of outcomes: new materials, innovative applications, autonomous work and engaged statements that can also take the form of an essay, lecture or performance. The exchange between written word and all kinds of materiality is examined, tested, discussed, recycled and represented. There is an infinite array of possibilities for producing new textiles, closely related to social webs and networks, garments and homes.

In short:
Textile | Context | Text | Tactility | Texture | Theory | Technique | Textualities

Programme

Material Research + Knowledge
Concept Development: Developing and testing the concept in a broader context
Editorial skills: Mapping + writing + editing + presenting
Material culture: Close reading + ways of thinking + presentation
Writing, drawing and art history
Weaving workshop
Textile workshop

Way of working

Collective research; individual talks and guidance with feedback of the other students; workfloor (reflective and editorial seminars); excursions; field projects in artist in residencies.

Study structure

First specialisation year

In the first TXT-year you will broaden your horizon but also learn how to develop a critical view of your own work. You will learn to create new fabrics and to put them in context. You will be given individual and group assignments and be challenged to experiment with both technique and design itself. The fields of research may be body-related or space-related. Next to all the making and testing, there will be a great deal of reading and writing in order to help you learn to develop and express your own thoughts on textiles.

Second specialisation year

The second year is about refining and deepening your own work and defining your position as a maker. Are you a material specialist, a maker or a researcher? Can the material speak for it self? How to look at the world and how to engage through your work? Collaboration with students from other departments will be encouraged.

Third specialisation year

After the internship of two months you will be writing an essay. The essay is an important part of the third specialisation year. This essay will help you to reflect on your work in a bigger context, it forms your own lexicon. And, of course you will also spend much of this year working on your final presentation of ideas, materials and artefacts. Together with a curator and the other students you will curate your graduation exhibition. After graduation you may use the title Bachelor of Art & Design (BA).

Theory

Theory has a very important place within the TXT department. One session a week is spent on reading, writing and analysing texts. Philosophy and conceptual thinking are important in this. The Studium Generale is also a standard part of the theory education in the TXT department. The Studium Generale provides a general historical context concerning current themes in the contemporary international art world. The Studium Generale brings in prominent speakers from the Netherlands and abroad. For more information, see Studium Generale.

Internship and exchange

Internships take place at the end of the second specialisation year or at the beginning of the third year and are an important part of the graduation program. It is also possible to participate in an international exchange program at another academy.

Textile workshop / Textiel werkplaats

Projects

Neighbourhood Knitting (2004), Bed Pieces (2005), Cover Space (2005), City Slicker project (2006), Real Textiles lectures (2010), D.I.G./Dress Information Group (2011), House Home or Both? Schiedam (2011), Shanghai Gesture, weaving a cultural exchange (2012), Enacted Magazine, presentations at Wongema (2012), Rainproof with Aliki van der Kruijs (2013), Domestic project, social research (2013), Wardrobe Research project (2014), North South Axes, Rethinking Richard Tuttle (2013), Body Minus Garment Equals (2015), Fieldwork, an exploration on farming, weaving and thinking (2016)

Cooperation and exchange with textile departments of Sint Lucas (Gent), Tama Art University (Tokyo), Weissensee School of Art (Berlin), Fries Museum (Leeuwarden), European Textile Network (Hannover) and Dutch Weavers Network

Eight Cubic Meters by TXT (Textile)
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Body minus garment equals - 16 December 2015
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TxT (Textile) years 1 and 2 co…

Eight Cubic Meters by TxT (Textile) presents: Maria Naidich
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Thingness (Coffee) +5 images
2017-01-26 20:09:48
Tool
2017-01-26 11:36:07
This movie shows the new possi…

Futon +3 images
2017-01-26 11:23:46

Franziska Wernicke – TxT (Textiel) 2009

Louella Haquette – TxT (Textiel) 2013

Marjanne van Helvert – TxT (Textiel) 2013

Anita Burato – TxT (Textiel) 2013

Students 1st year

Cato Benschop
Fieke Ruitinga
Frederiek Simons
Isabel Mooij
Karis Lindelien
Katrin Naftz
Lingyun Cao
Luca Penning
Lucile Haefflinger
Mathilde Lalouette
Mika Perlmutter
Nikki Swarts
Norig Dodier
Patricia Mascarell Llombart
Vera Laarakker

Students 2nd year

Eszter Kiss
Ines Paiva Vilar de Queiros
Iris Warris
Tatiana Pimenova
Zofia Skoroszewska

Students 3rd year