To Dye For

9 April 2022 till 2 October 2022 - The TextielMuseum - Tilburg

Textiles come in every colour imaginable. But have you ever wondered what makes your favourite jeans blue? Discover the world of textile dyeing in the exhibition ‘To Dye For’: from the origin of dyes and the stories behind them to their impact on people and the environment.

Yellow, blue and red form the starting point of ‘To Dye For’, which features work by artists and (fashion) designers such as Claudy Jongstra, Antonio José Guzman & Iva Jankovic, Nienke Hoogvliet, Aboubakar Fofana and Nan Groot Antink. Spanning centuries and continents, the exhibition provides a glimpse of the beauty and dilemmas of colour in textiles. Learn about the challenges that artisans, artists, designers and scientists have faced over the years as well as the creative solutions they have found. Discover which plants can be used for dyeing in the museum’s Dye Plant Garden. And play the family game that lets you touch, smell and even taste the colours!

The story behind indigo blue

Indigo is a natural pigment that can produce different shades of blue in textiles. It has a long history that connects people and places around the world. The dye was once considered extremely valuable, including for its great spiritual power. It was also a precious commodity grown by slaves on plantations in the American colonies.

Iva Jankovic and Antonio Jose Guzman explore the colonial history of indigo in a monumental installation of indigo canvases commissioned by the TextielMuseum. The fabrics were embroidered in the TextielLab with interpretation of symbols from traditional African, Latin America and Eastern European texts and alphabets, giving new visibility to cultures that was suppressed by European colonists. The installation was created in collaboration with indigo master Sufiyan Khatri and the experts from the TextielLab