It is with great pleasure that Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen and TXT, the textile department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, announce their first collaboration. Over the next two months, the Kunstfort will open up the peninsula for an educational programme for three study years of TXT students. They will engage with local communities around the Kunstfort and experiment with various ways of interaction.

At the TXT department, the relationship between materiality and the written word is examined from various perspectives. Theory, philosophy, reading and (creative) writing play an important role in mapping the historical, aesthetic, social, political and material value of textiles. This can result in new materials, autonomous work or socially committed statements in the form of an essay, lecture, publication, performance or intervention in public space.

With this new collaboration, the partners enable students to create and show work outside the academy and to be informed and inspired by the ecology, heritage and people on and around the fort, and the questions and issues that these raise.

The ideas of the TXT students will be presented at the Kunstfort during a public programme on Saturday May 13th, in which the students present activities and works. On that same day, artist researcher Alaa Abu Asad, a Fellow at the Rietveld Academie’s lectorate, will give a lecture at the Kunstfort, entitled: “In the absence of the invasive: Can we finally look at the Japanese Knotweed as a green future companion?” Also, the Department of Graphic Design and Public Rietveld & Projects will present a publication highlighting the collaboration, the research process and outcomes.

The students’ works can be visited at the Kunstfort up to (Pentacost) Monday May 29th.

A more detailed overview of the public programme on May 13th will follow.
Click here for more information about TXT.