The Createx Project
The European Project “Textile Heritage Inspiring Creatives – Createx” co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, aims to promote the cultural heritage of the European textile sector as a potential source of creative inspiration for tomorrow’s designers and their future productions.
The project’s partnership, coordinated by the Museo del Tessuto in Prato, Italy, is composed of five cities that feature a profound textile vocation, including Santo Tirso in Portugal, Gironella in Spain, Łódź in Poland, and Borås in Sweden, all of which belong to ACTE, the “European Textile Collectivities Association” (www.acte.net).
The project’s approach is focused on raising awareness and strengthening archive conservation skills, offering innovative design experiences to young designers inspired by the innovative reading of archival materials and the acquisition of skills and services leading to possible new market opportunities.
The Createx Residency Cycle
The Createx creative residency cycle is taking place in these summer months, from June to September, involving all territories belonging to Project partnership. The residences have been designed as a unique experience of in-depth study of the European T&C sector as well as an occasion of exchange of experiences for the 15 young creatives under 30 selected through local calls during last Spring by Createx partners (3 designers chosen by each partner).
Study visits at textile companies archives, meetings with style offices and professional designers, visits to fashion and textile design museums and industrial archeology sites are some of the interesting events scheduled on the agenda of the individual residences, aimed at providing tools, knowledge, information and contacts as useful as possible for the concrete realization of the mini-collection projects with which each participant has been selected to join the cycle.
The residency calendar is organized in a circular way so that each partner can host 3 young creatives from a single Createx territory and let its 3 local designers travel to a different partner region.
In detail as follow:
– Lodz Residency (PL): from 03 to 09 June hosting the designers from Gironella, Spain
– Prato Residency (IT): from 25 to 29 June hosting the designers from Boras, Sweden
– Gironella Residency (SP): from 30 June to 05 July hosting the designers from Prato, Italy
– Santo Tirso Residency (PT): from 14 to 20 July hosting the designers from Lodz, Poland
– Boras Residency (SW): from 09 to 13 September hosting the designers from Santo Tirso, Portugal
Full profiles of the selected creatives, their personal YouTube presentations and above all the graphic projects with which they were chosen for the participation in the residency cycle are available in the dedicated session “Designers” on the official website of the Project at the link createxproject.eu/designers.
The selected graphic projects will lead to the realization by next autumn of 15 mini collections of fashion, fabrics, accessories or interior design products inspired by the European textile heritage that will be the thematic content of a traveling collective exhibition and a dedicated catalog between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020.