EuroWeb members, researchers working with textiles and audiovisual archives, as well as craftspeople, creatives and all others interested in textiles and audiovisual archives are invited to contribute to a survey of European Audiovisual Archives (i.e., sound and moving image archives) containing, or potentially containing, archival material related to traditional textile techniques, as well as to textile heritage in general and the history of textile production throughout the 20th century.
Your contribution to this survey is invaluable. If you are aware, or are able to identify, any such archives in your country (or anywhere else in Europe), please take 5 minutes to share some basic details on it and its collections through the form below.
The dissemination of this survey is also greatly appreciated.
The deadline for submitting replies is the 28th of July 2023.
Rationale:
European Textile Heritage is as rich and diverse as it is fragile.
Intangible Textile Heritage, in particular traditional textile processes, techniques and ways of doing, has long been under threat from the industrialization of textile production and the social, economic and demographic changes taking place in the rural areas which, traditionally, have been the preserve of these and other traditional crafts.
Its classification and protection in the framework of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) and its national and international offshoots has already borne some fruit, with a number of textile processes, techniques and products having now been classified as protected Intangible Heritage at an international and/ or national level (e.g., the Albanian Xhubleta, the Zmijanje embroidery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lacemaking in Croatia, the altiţă blouses of Romania and Moldova, the Bug river weaving tradition in Poland or the Aubusson tapestry in France, just to mention a few examples from Europe classified by UNESCO itself).
However, many other traditional textile techniques across Europe remain in dire need of documentation and study. While this should be addressed in the future through dedicated recording innitiatives, this survey, conducted in the framework of COST Action EuroWeb - Europe through Textiles (CA19131), explores another potential source for the study, preservation and valorization of the European Intangible Textile Heritage, namely existing archival audiovisual (i.e., sound and moving image) material.
Creating a directory of such archival material could not only help mitigate the lack of resources to undertake new documentation innitiatives and projects, but also shed light on techniques and practices which may already be difficult to document today, and on changing patterns of textile production arising from social, economic and demographic shifts in European countries.
Framework:
This survey is being conducted as part of the Virtual Mobility Grant Towards an EuroWeb Audio-Visual Archive: Communicating Textile Heritage and Research through Multimedia Resources awarded by Cost Action EuroWeb - Europe through Textiles (CA19131) to Francisco B. Gomes.
Contact for further information or other research input: franciscojbgomes@gmail.com
