Southeast Asia is a region in which textiles play a hugely important role. Not only are textiles produced in many countries, but there is also rapid consumption of textiles in cosmopolitan cities. In many countries, traditional textiles are of high cultural value. Textiles carry stories, both collective and individual ones.
The textile industry is as diverse as its products reaching from handcrafted ritual fabric to interior design and to the fast fashion sold in the many shopping malls.
The next big trend and question looming is that of sustainability:
- How can textiles be produced in a more resource-efficient way?
- What role will traditional artisanship play in the future?
- Do we, as consumers, face the challenge to reconsider our buying strategies?
- Do textile producers have the responsibility to offer new products, ones that are eco-friendly and come from a production that is fair to the people involved?
- Do we need to buy at all?
- Can’t we just all be makers and crafters?
IKAT/eCUT is a Goethe-Institut project exploring the past, present and future of textiles in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Through different activities it is looking at the cultural potency of textiles in many fields – from the arts to design, from tradition to technology.
