The Cultural Sustainability of the Textile Art Object

Abstract

The various handloom techniques are the oldest artistic technologies of humanity. The typologies of archaic weaving techniques, as well as of the raw material, are very diverse on all the meridians of the world. Through the perpetuation of techniques, materials, archetypes and symbols, it has been possible to transmit to this day an entire material and immaterial heritage of fabrics, craft techniques, symbols and decorative motifs, for all the peoples of the world. All these form that patrimony of the archaic textile arts which can be described by the anthropological self-referentiality of the handloom. The material and intangible heritage must be preserved in museums, but capitalized creatively and intelligently so that future generations can understand the identity, history and great cultural diversity of the handloom. The modern concept of cultural sustainability of products is based on the principle of sustainability over time, with a small carbon footprint. The technical processes of making sustainable products in art and textile design require a slowdown in serialization, production and consumption, as well as an increase in added value and creative personalization, with emphasis on the visual semiotics of cultural identity. In this context, the creative design of textiles, oriented towards application areas such as fashion textiles and those for interior or architectural design, use the appropriate cultural tools for any field of sustainable creative industries. The works that are the subject of this article proves that exploratory and experimental research in textile arts, conducted with students of the Department of Textile Arts and Textile Design at UAD Bucharest, was able to validate cultural tools and aesthetic material basis, allowing the creative to express, through specific visual language, an entire individual universe, an archetypal heritage identity, with sustainable cultural values.