From a variety of perspectives and with different narratives, both exhibitions shed light on strong asymmetrical dependency relationships and reveal how deeply these are woven into the history and present of the production, use and distribution of textiles. The two exhibitions engage in a constructive exchange of ideas through their exhibits, encouraging visitors to adopt different perspectives and explore new questions.
The Exhibitions
Dressing Resistance. Fashion and the Heritage of Mission / Widerstand bekleiden. Mode und das Erbe von Missionierung
The exhibition explores the question of how Christian missionisation has influenced fashion in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and how fashion designers and artists deal with this legacy today. It builds on an international conference with academics and cultural practitioners at the Global Heritage Lab and shows works by Tuli Mekondjo (Namibia), Cheryl McIntosh (Jamaica/Bonn), Amanda McIntyre (Trinidad and Tobago), Loo Nascimento (Brazil) and others.
The exhibition is interactive andinvites visitors to join in. Adults and children can weave on a 2x2 metre weaving frame by Peruvian-German artist Sofía Magdits Espinoza or learn how to make Namibian dolls.
Enmeshed and Entwined - Fabrics of Dependency / Verstrickt und Verwoben - Texturen der Abhängigkeit
This exhibition by the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) and the Bonn Center for Digital Humanities (BCDH) discusses the social entanglements and asymmetrical dependency relationships inherent in one of our oldest cultural assets. It is accompanied by a growing digital exhibition, an extensive online resource that is continuously expanded as further research is conducted into "fabrics of dependency".
At the centre of the exhibition is a large quilt, which provides the 'narrative' framework for the multi-layered story of 'fabrics of dependency' in a series of 'story patches' from different periods and regions. Using multimedia, visitors learn what textiles - from coarse cloth to fine silk, from workwear to fashion - tell us about forms of dependency such as enslavement, serfdom, forced labour or contemporary factory work in the Global South. The stations show how textiles have been interwoven with social, economic and political hierarchies in different periods and regions, and what dependencies characterise global trade routes and supply chains, then and now.
By being embedded in the Global Heritage Lab, the BCDSS exhibition is given an additional thematic framework and further contextualisation.
The official opening is on 15 May 2025 at 6 pm with a welcoming address by the Rector of the University of Bonn Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Hoch and an artistic performance by Sofía Magdits Espinoza (Peru/Germany).