The Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, in association with the Asian Heritage Foundation, is organising an exhibition of ingeniously woven historic Indian handmade textile forms as a prelude to World Handmade Textile Biennales. 

The exhibition was inaugurated by Smriti Irani, Minister of Textiles, and Ajay Tamta, Minister of State for Textiles, at the renovated Handloom Haat in Janpath on March 5, in the presence of Padmabhushan Rajeev Sethi, Chairman, Asian Heritage Foundation. 

The showcase of handmade textiles at the event unfolds an evocative visual language of design, bridging different periods of Indian textile history. Each displayed piece tells a unique story. The five textile forms with deep roots in India and a strong international footprint include Khadi, Brocade, Ikat, Chintz, and Embroider With an aim to deconstruct matrix of threads and fibres, warp and weft associated with the forms, and also to face the changing sensibilities and preferences of the global markets – the proposed Biennales will be organised in the nerve-centers of their practice - Ahmedabad, Varanasi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, and Srinagar respectively. 

The Biennales' team has even initiated an unprecedented exercise to map the five principal handmade textile skills on the international level. The data which has been collated so far is laid out graphically on five world political maps presented at the event. 

Being the curtain raiser for the World Handmade Textile Biennales, the exhibition is being held at those grounds of the country from where it re-imagined its creative identity after Independence, through a group of visionaries who laid the foundations of National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum, and All India Handloom Board. Celebrating the living heritage of the county, the ongoing exhibition is a homage to such visionaries, with a hopes to recapture the essence of handmade production across the country through these five textile traditions.

Published On : 15-03-2019

Source : Millennium Post