Secrets of making – artists and designers in the TextielLab

26 June 2021 T/M 8 May 2022

For the first time, the TextielMuseum shows how artists, designers and fashion designers work together with the technical experts, product developers and yarn specialists of the TextielLab, in the group exhibition ‘Secrets of Making’. With work by Otobong Nkanga, Koen Taselaar and Tess van Zalinge, among others.

Every day, artists and designers come from far and wide to work in the TextielLab; the specialist workshop of the TextielMuseum. Unique to the TextielLab is that museum visitors can look over the shoulders of the creative makers and technical specialists. They see up close how the textile works come off the machines. But how do these projects come about? Discover it in ‘Secrets of Making’.

Creatorship comes to life

Divided over two spaces in the exhibition, creatorship comes to life. Imagine yourself in the first room in the workshops and studios of the makers and discover their methods and sources of inspiration. On display are, for example, sketches, working drawings, tests and threads. In video fragments, the product developers, yarn specialists and technical experts from the TextielLab explain the manufacturing process and explain how they created the textile works together. In the second space of the exhibition, the (interim) results of the creative production processes can be seen: from innovative sun blinds and meter-high tapestry samples to furniture constructions made with trimmings and garments that respond to weather conditions.

Design process of artist Sigrid Calon

Secrets of makers unraveled

Knitting specialist and shoe innovator Suzanne Oude Hengel about her design process of a machine knitted shoe

Artist Koen Taselaar about the creative process leading up to his tapestries with visual stories

Fashion, art and design

‘Secrets of making’ shows the inspiring creatorship of fashion designers, artists and designers Alissa + Nienke, Sigrid Calon, Jef Montes, Otobong Nkanga, Suzanne Oude Hengel, Ines Sistiaga, Tanja Smeets, Koen Taselaar, Geo Wyeth and Tess van Zalinge. The designer collective Envisions also contributes and is also responsible for the spatial design of the exhibition.

Koen Taselaar working in his studio, photo: Envisions

About the TextielLab

In the heart of the TextielMuseum, you can find the TextielLab, the dynamic workshop for innovative textile production. It is a testing ground where both young talent and established names in art and design, together with technical experts and product developers, create new work on the innovative machines in the TextielLab. They draw inspiration from the rich sources of the TextielMuseum, such as old paint samples, weaving or production methods.

Exhibition Secrets of making, photo: Josefina Eikenaar
Studio Jef Montes, photo: Envisions, Ronald Smit
Exhibition Secrects of making, photo: Josefina Eikenaar
Studio Ines Sistiaga, photo: Envisions, Ronald Smit
Exhibition Secrets of making, photo: Josefina Eikenaar
Studio Envisions, photo: Envisions, Ronald Smit