Return forgotten weavers to the rich fabric of Indian textiles

For decades, Gamchha was everywhere in the Indian streets.

The traditional scarf, made from a piece of red and white fabric, is used as a towel, pillow, turban, eye mask, and even shoulder bending, most of them by layers operating in the western Bengal state and other regions of the country.

But an exhibition in the city of Delhi, India, which ended two weeks ago, highlighted the history of the normal fabric in a unique way.

Gamchha: From usual to extraordinary, more than 250 pieces of short curtain from 14 Indian states were shown to show differences in the scarf of the scarf across the regions.

From Gamchhas White from Kerala with a colored pencil border, the IKAT woven devices from Odisha to Assam “Gamusa” with red swans and large floral patterns, interpretations of hand -made.

“The show is about talking about a symbol of social equality that the garment can raise, even after decades of leaving the speech,” said textile expert Jaya Gaitley, Dastkari Haat Samiti, the crafts organization that presented this exhibition.

The exhibition is part of a series of offers and endeavors, which have been held in the past few months, which seeks to redefine our understanding of Indian textiles by taking them in new directions.

From rich silk woven, decorative construction and complex chinitz to a group of less modern textiles that spoke, India’s contribution to the global textile industry is unique.

But despite recognition, including in some of the largest museums in the world, their documents were excluded and did not continue contemporary practices in this industry.

yet.

By the artistic foundations, crafts and ingenuity by researchers in cooperation with gathering enthusiasts and private museums, a number of new exhibitions raises something from the Renaissance in the industry.

It is a departure from the most desirable, unwanted costumes-there are no Bollywood stars who are separated from the crowds who open the show, or take care of it after parties. Places are often far from big cities.

Instead, the focus is on moving away from urban designers – most of whom are trained in elite colleges in India and abroad – and bring local craftsmen directly.

“These exhibitions lead to” equality known as technology “in the ecosystems of textiles. “Because of Instagram and other digital platforms, the lack of disclosure of his identity around the craftsmen also descends,” she says.

One day a small society of values ​​and sponsors, has now grown to include experts from various fields, including art and architecture.

And they want to take the history of textiles beyond their full richness – associated with the bone of palaces, the privacy of festive rituals and wedding parties – to include the traditions of the various fabric industry and the people behind them.

The most comprehensive contemporary identity, according to the famous designer David Abraham, Watan and “reclamation of pride and value”.

He says: “As for the Indians, the relationship with the textiles is attractive. We express ourselves culturally through colors, fabric and fabric, and each of these has a meaning designated for them. These offers are re -directing value in our system.”

Consider these cases. Bengal textiles: joint heritage, displayed in Colkata until the end of March, highlights the historical uniqueness of the traditions of fabric in unrecarmed Bengal.

Show some fabrics and clothes that have not yet been preceded from the seventeenth century until now. There are cotton raids and dhotis (curtains worn by men) that showcase the traditions of famous hands in the region like Jamdani, which are still a fabric required to this day. After that, there are rare embroidery of India from Puerto and some of the pilgrim romal – a religious cloth embroidered once exported to Indonesia and parts of the Arab world as a head covering for men.

The program includes talks and demonstrations on craft techniques in addition to cultural shows – the famous dancer Purnima Ghosh, which was held in one of the sessions wearing a hand -paid Batik. Batik includes drawing designs on the fabric with hot liquid wax and a metal object. Artists use a great brushes to paint the dyes inside the outline of wax.

“The goal is to return attention to the legacy of joint Bengal with Bangladesh, whether it is textiles, techniques, skills and trading, as well as narrative history, culture and food, despite the changing geographical areas,” says Darshan Mikani Shah, founder of the Weaver Studio Resources Center, which holds the exhibition.

Elsewhere, the curators are trying to provide a more accurate understanding of the history of textiles in India, including the methods that have been affected by the greatest social reality in class conflicts.

Take Pampa: The Karnataka State, which was presented by the Abheraj Baldota Foundation, which ended earlier this month in Hambi, UNESCO World Heritage website. Of the hundreds of textiles offered, there were embroidery works in Lambanis, a local international tribe; The code quilt created by a community that will be in the country, which tracks its origins to Africa; As well as the sacred textiles made for Buddhist monasteries.

Through this photography, the exhibition tries to inform the history of Bedouin, tribal and agricultural societies that were the elastic survival of the haven and the piece to narrate their marginalized experiences.

It is not only about everything – some exhibitions highlight the future of the industry as well, as designers find new and innovative ways to imagine traditional textiles in a contemporary expression.

For example, the recently concluded surface exceeds: an exhibition of Indian embroidery and surface decorations as an art, exceeds the decoration of clothes and the house and adds light to the ways in which textiles are used in paintings, graphics, artistic facilities and sculptures.

The exhibition, organized by the Sutrakala Foundation and condemned the step by step in the old city of Godbur, a group of fabric art pieces made by the famous contemporary painter Manisha Barric.

These offers also play an important role in updating the history of textiles by accurately documenting them.

“Even some of the country’s largest fashion institutes do not have our textile archive,” says Lekha Buddar, co -founder of the Devy Art Foundation, who has supported nine textile exhibitions in the past decade.

The last Devi Art Foundation project, titled Pehchaan: tried permanent topics in Indian textiles, filling this gap.

The exhibition was presented in cooperation with the National Museum in Delhi, which is a survey of visual ideas and materials that were repeated in Indian textiles for more than 500 years, with the oldest exhibition ranging from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

“How will young designers find an inspiration for their work if they are not aware of their history and they do not have visual references for that?” Mrs. Poddar asks.

The success of these offers has made organizers hope for their future.

Maynk Mansingh Kaul, who has held the position of Termatic Adviser to 20 exhibitions in the past ten years, says.

“Slowly, we will build new fans, cooperate more and push the next generation of makers to look to quality.”

Follow BBC News India Instagramand YouTube, twitter and Facebook.