Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague – Vysoká škola uměleckoprůmyslová v Praze (UMPRUM)

We have the pleasure to inform you about the Call for Papers for the “TEXTile Manifestoes” anthology, which will be edited and published at the Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague.
This publication is intended to accompany the exhibition of the same name, which is scheduled to have its first show in winter 2021 in Prague.
(Both the timeline and the practicability are dependent on the general health situation.)

In recent years the manifesto genre has experienced a revival and a great number of manifestoes have been published, covering topics as diverse as cyborgs (Donna Haraway), accelerationism (Alex Williams & Nick Srnicek), environmental breakdown (Matthew Lawrence & Laurie Laybourn-Langton), xenofeminism (Laboria Cuboniks), or lately the fashion revolution to come (www.fashionrevolution.org/manifesto). However, the sheer quantity and diverseness of manifestoes as well as its many historical reminiscences (from the Communist Manifesto through the entire avant-gardes’ programme) raise questions about the effectiveness and appropriateness of the very genre in today’s globalised world with its multiple looming catastrophes. Artistic responses such as Julian Rosefeldt’s 2015 13-channel film installation “Manifesto” both underline the genre’s past and present importance while also questioning the cacophony of voices, positions, and calls to action which were expressed throughout the genre’s history. It seems that the manifesto itself can be conceptualised as a multiple text running through the history of modernity up until the present day. Marx’ spectres are still, and notably in the 21st century’s third decade, haunting us (Derrida, Jacques: Spectres de Marx, 1993).

The anthology “TEXTile Manifestoes” departs from this genre-related ambivalence and aims at connecting it with the triadic complex of TEXT – TEXTile – TEXTuality. Whereas textile works have always played a significant role in human civilisations – from their first applications in primordial architecture to their manifold ritual, religious, and decorative uses – it were textures, often intertwining textile and texts of different kinds that became bearers of meaning. It was no coincidence that the textile sector underwent as one of the first domains mechanisation. A cornerstone of the industrial revolution, textile manufactories were the scene of revolts against the consequences of industrialisation and early capitalism. Even today, after having been mostly relocated to the global peripheries, they still reflect the underlying condition of global capitalism (Beckert, Sven: Empire of Cotton, 2014). Ever since the first Weavers’ Uprisings, the production of textile has been accompanied by poems, pamphlets and manifestoes, bringing about great change in contexts political, social, or artistic. The etymological proximity of textile and text strangely resonated in this context, but, most importantly, leads to the heart of (post-)structuralist theory when understanding a text’s composition out of sentences and words alongside textile textures consisting of threads and fibres.
Many publications have focused either on the textuality of texts (Greber, Monika: Textile Texte, 2002) or the texts and textualities of textile works (Frank, Rike & Watson, Grant: Textiles. Open Letter, 2015 or Hanzlíková, Emma & Vinglerová, Markéta: Pocta Suknu, 2018). “Textile Manifestoes” wants to follow those reflections by (re-)situating them in connection with the manifesto as genre.

We do welcome contributions from across the humanities (theory and history of art, fashion theory, sociology, anthropology, ethnology, philosophy, political science, cultural history, etc.) and encourage interdisciplinary perspectives.

Possible (but non-exhaustive) lines of questions are dealing with:
1) The complex entanglements and interrelations between the textual and the textile, especially ways of translating, transferring, recoding, etc. content when transitioning from the first to the second or vice versa and when combining both of them;
2) The textures and/or textualities of manifestoes, situating them in historical and contemporary contexts, critically reflecting on their political and social ramifications, analysing biases and difficulties such as the politics of gender and/or political correctness entailed (or not) in different manifestoes;
3) The manifesto as related to textile art, the fashion industry, and other artistic practices dealing with text and textuality. A special interest may be devoted to textualities of post- and decoloniality.

The publication „TEXTile Manifestoes“ is a part of the Academy’s publishing programme 2021 and aims at assembling trans- and interdisciplinary contributions working on questions related to textile art, fashion, and textuality in a broader political, sociological, ideological, and historical context.
The project “TEXTile Manifestoes“ emerged out of a cross-disciplinary cooperation between several studios at Prague’s Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design including the studios of Fashion and Footwear Design (prof. Liběna Rochová), of Graphic Design and Visual Communication (MgA. Petr Krejzek), Type Design and Typography (MgA. Filip Kraus), and of Photography II (MgA. Štěpánka Štein & Václav Jirásek). The students’ projects were united under the curatorial concept of „TEXTile Manifestoes“ and their works are to be presented alongside a theoretical part in the homonymous anthology.

Please submit your English abstract (max. 350 words / 2,100 characters) including a provisional title and a short bibliography on the subject together with a brief curriculum vitae by May 31, 2021 to Robin Mudry (robin.mudryegs.edu).
You will receive a response by June 7, 2021.
The complete contributions (approximately 3,500 words / 21,000 characters with spaces, depending on the project) must be submitted by August 23, 2021. Texts where adjustments are required shall be returned until September 1, 2021.
Once a paper proposal is accepted, individual agreements regarding length and other technical questions are possible.
A honorary for the authors is intended.
For further information, we invite you to contact the editors at robin.mudryegs.edu.