This episode is a report of the roundtable discussion that took place on 11 July 2023 titled Decolonizing the Gaze – Textile Cultural Heritage vs Colonialism – Cultural Appropriations?  The discussion is based on visual artist Caterina Pecchioli‘s research project, Decolonizing the Gaze: The Colonial Heritage of Italian and International Fashion Design and Its Impact on the Collective Imagination.

Decolonizing the Gaze – Textile Cultural Heritage vs Colonialism – Cultural Appropriations? is an open debate about what different fabrics and their history tell about interculture, colonialism, and cultural appropriations. The discussion, which involves Afro-descendant stylists, artists, and fashion designers with origins from countries with a history of Dutch colonisation, intended to identify new meanings about widespread colonial dressing practices and body policies, and the effects of colonialism on the individual/collective imagination and design practices.

Together with fashion designer and creative director Zinzi de Brouwer and publisher and designer Willem van Zoetendaal, the roundtable offers insight into the Dutch Wax fabrics and the implications of its designs and messages produced in Holland and sold in Africa – and its complex and controversial identity representation. These fabrics present images and messages that are like archives of meanings that tell of an ambiguous relationship linked to the European colonial period. Fashion designers and creative directors Semhal Tsegaye Abebe, Bubu Ogisi, and Zinzi de Brouwer  also highlight initiatives and design projects that reveal the richness of African textile heritage still little known in Europe today, and their connection with sustainability. Some of the topics brought to the discussion emerge from a participatory workshop that Caterina Pecchioli⁠ previously lead at Thami Mnyele Foundation studio, were she was artist in residence, in collaboration with CBK Zuidoost⁠, and interviews collected on these issues by Caterina Pecchioli and Roxane Mbanga between Amsterdam and Paris.

Decolonizing the Gaze is supported by the Italian Council (11th edition, 2022), Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity within the Italian Ministry of Culture. The Dutch programmes are in collaboration with Framer Framed (NL), Thami Mnyele Foundation (NL) and CBK Zuidoost (NL).

www.framerframed.nl