In CULTURALITY, we understand crafts as an indispensable element of identity, capable of characterising and highlighting a territory through its traditional culture and its links to the community that inhabits it. Crafts are inevitably linked to the territory because it conditions them from the inside out, for instance, through its specific needs and the raw materials that are available in the area: it determines their types, their shapes, their decorative motifs and, of course, their use. In turn, crafts can also influence the territory, creating unique cultural landscapes and distinctive social customs that form the basis of the local shared heritage. Thus, crafts are connected to the community because THEY SHARE relations with the oral traditions, verbally transmitted know-how(s) or peculiar ways of cooperation and interaction between its inhabitants. CULTURALITY understands crafts of course, WE AIM to offer a leading role to the crafts as they DESERVE. WE want to share the singularities and values of our own artisan traditions. Our greatest aspiration is that, through our work, traditional crafts are no longer considered a thing of the past, but rather a source of pride and sustainable development for both the present and the future.

Together we can find intertwined in the threads of this textile legacy not only a catalyst for the creativity of our ancestors, but also a testimony of their empowerment. Women from all places have been weaving a great collaborative patchwork piece for centuries, in which each culture has added its contribution, and it is the responsibility of our present-day creators to continue preserving and furthering this precious legacy. The underlying line of the chosen theme is based on this very concept: today’s modern designers have quite often, managed to take over from their artisan ancestors and reinterpret their know-how in ways that ignite a new appreciation for their tireless efforts. Therefore, some of the participating countries have chosen not only to show us a piece that directly represents their textile artisan heritage, but to also bring out a second item that reflects their influence on their high-quality, artisan-based contemporary design. This continuity, although scarce, should always be taken as a breath of fresh air in a sociocultural context like the one we live in right now, in which globalisation and mass production are gradually and effectively killing the interest in learning and preserving this ancestral knowledge. The peculiarities of characteristic traditional textiles linked to the folklore of a certain geographical area have also been known to act as a promoter of the sense of belonging and community among the inhabitants, carried time and time again as a banner of their pride. Where it seems that individuality is constantly being diluted in pursuit of an increasingly ubiquitous homogenization, the nods to tradition in these contemporary garments never fail to make a powerful statement.

Both a well-preserved and respected past and a conscious present are indispensable parts of a future in which this knowledge is still valued and transmitted from generation to generation, as it has always been. That is what we hope to convey through this exhibition and, ultimately, one of our most ambitious goals.