Textile as Resistance
The exhibition Textile as Resistance, which has been on show at Texture Kortrijk in Belgium since November, will now travel to Kunsthal Extra City Antwerp, March – April 2020. Created in collaboration with journalist Samira Bendadi and photographer Mashid Mohadjerin, this storytelling and photography exhibition looks at textiles as a medium for expressing identity in times of war and crisis.
Migration and identity are subjects that play important roles in the work of Mashid Mohadjerin and Samira Bendadi. Samira is a journalist at MO* Magazine. She specialises in North Africa and the Middle East and writes about migration, asylum and diversity. Mashid Mohadjerin is a photographer whose work has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, De Standaard, and Le Monde. Mohadjerin’s work explores the boundaries between artistic and documentary photography. She studies identity and migration and has travelled the world in search of human-interest stories.
Image: Zena Sabbagh's work table - Beirut, Lebanon.
Mashid and Samira curated exclusive work for the exhibition using clothing and textiles as a jumping off point into stories that transcend religious, cultural and national borders. They started by working with Syrian refugees in Antwerp: “We were able to meet up with many powerful women who work towards the empowerment of women through textile. And who want to protect their own heritage and the stories and memories for the future generations.”
For example, the exhibition includes the story of Zena Sabbagh, who fled the Syrian war and now opens her door for women who want to sew and embroider. In her apartment in the neighbourhood Badora, she introduces them to new techniques, but also gives them the freedom to create something themselves. Also, Samira Salah who works with women in refugee camps in Palestine. In one camp the women embroider, in the other they sew. It’s a method to help women earn an income and to preserve the Palestinian cultural heritage, making sure that their heritage is not taken away from them.
For more information about the exhibition, visit www.momu.be