Re/Wave Symposium
Textile flows as sites of material knowledge and transformation.
Connecting practitioners across Europe and West Africa through collaborative learning and exchange.
Re/Wave explores how textile systems are shaped by global flows of materials, knowledge, and labour.
The symposium addresses urgent questions around sustainability, responsibility, and transformation within contemporary fashion systems. It creates space to critically reflect on how design, production, and consumption are interconnected across regions.
The program focuses on exchange between Europe and West Africa, bringing together diverse perspectives on material practices and cultural knowledge.
Assemblage Journal Vol. 3 – Re/Wave
This issue documents the transition from critical reflection to collective practice through the symposium.
It brings together contributions from invited speakers, workshop leaders, and researchers working across Europe and West Africa. Their practices, methodologies, and situated knowledge inform and shape the conceptual framework of Re/Wave.
From the Assemblage Journal
- Textile flows and global material systems
- Situated knowledge in West African design practices
- Circularity, repair, and cultural production logics
Impact
Re/Wave combines educational practice with critical engagement on global textile systems. Through collaboration with practitioners from Ghana, Benin, and other contexts, the program opens perspectives on upcycling, local value creation, and sustainable design practices. It supports participants in developing competencies in systems thinking, ethical awareness, and critical reflection on global production networks. The program addresses structural inequalities in the textile industry and examines Europe’s role within global value chains. Re/Wave functions as a scalable educational format that links research, teaching, and public knowledge production.
