Tisser les imaginaires 

Collection Thalie presents this summer a new display of works dedicated to textiles, a curatorial proposal that resonates with the practice of Leo Orta, invited designer in residence, and the objects created by ALEOR, a creative studio dedicated to biobased design. While the works in the Collection give shape to artistic imaginaries, ALEOR confronts these narratives with reality. The studio develops investigative methods rooted in the territory — gleaning, collecting, observing, experimenting — in order to bring forth situated narratives. Immersed in the Camargue region, Leo Orta’s work acts here as a true catalyst. He questions the future of certain local industries, particularly basket weaving, from which the designer imagines a collection of artefacts both rooted in tradition and open to speculative perspectives. Through these approaches, art and design become tools for critical archiving, transmission, and the reactivation of knowledge.

Weaving, here, does not simply mean producing a fabric. It means creating a dialogue between materials and uses, recomposing the world through what binds us to the living. Textile thus becomes a structure of thought, a way of inhabiting landscapes, preserving memory, and opening new imaginaries.

The Memory of Landscapes

In the entrance corridor, a series of photographs documents Leo Orta’s gathering process in the Camargue for the creation of his basketry pieces. Sensitive and poetic, the image-based practices of Ilanit Illouz and Françoise Vanneraud also become silent forms of wandering, where memory is physically put to the test.

The artists and designers presented here develop methodologies rooted in specific contexts, where material becomes a site of attention to the living. Diana Scherer explores the underground weaving of roots as a living architecture, revealing the invisible forms through which nature organizes its growth. In rural Colombia, Rosana Escobar develops ecosystemic responses connected to natural fibres and the structuring of territorial production networks, where design, community, and environment interact. Through weaving, Elise Peroi transforms the textile gesture into a sensitive tool for reading the landscape. Other artists shift fibre towards formal and sensory experimentations: the raffia works and symmetrical compositions of Amina Agueznai. Simone Pheulpin’s pleated fabric landscapes, held together by hundreds of invisible pins, read like stratifications, akin to a living cartography, revealing a technique that pushes the limits of materiality. Meanwhile, through objects, Max Funkat invites commemoration and a living memory of the deceased, where matter and form engage in dialogue with the beyond. In this ensemble, the landscape becomes an active memory in which the works reveal environments, fragilities, and latent forces.

Textile as Narrative

In its original etymology, textile is inseparable from text: both derive from the Latin texere, “to weave,” “to intertwine.” This shared origin suggests a material and sensitive understanding of narrative, where meaning is constructed as much through arrangement as through gesture. These narrative forms orient the gaze and guide interpretation. They propose pathways, suggest meanings, and open spaces for imagination. Textile thus becomes a site of projection, capable of shifting our perception and inviting us to inhabit reality differently.

The presentation of Leo Orta’s residency is grounded in the revival of vernacular know-how, as well as the plants associated with these practices, such as rattan or giant reed. Through the object, conceived as a manifesto, the project seeks to revive forgotten forms of craftsmanship, particularly basket weaving once practiced in the region. The objects thus become entry points through which to reactivate, reconfigure, and extend a dormant textile language, while opening a connection to fiction: that of a territory where vanished gestures continue to act, like suspended material narratives.

Embroidery, straw marquetry, and weaving are all techniques that respond to one another, creating bridges between different temporalities and narratives. Like the work of Sheila Hicks, fascinated by structures, forms, and colours, these practices are enriched by multiple influences.

Textile can also become an ode to slowness and repetition, while giving form to emotion, as in the work of Junko Oki, whose hand-embroidered cocoon-like piece reenacts cycles of metamorphosis by bringing old textiles back to life. Asemahle Ntlonti weaves the memory of Xhosa women thread by thread, preserving inherited gestures her hands refuse to let disappear. For Majd Abdel Hamid, embroidery becomes a form of resistance through the imposed slowness of craftsmanship, a humble and persistent response to the turbulence of the world.

The works are reservoirs of narratives and transformations: Caroline Achaintre’s tufted wool totem-mask, the abstract compositions of Lucy and Jorge Orta, the colourful and fantastical weavings of Georges Tony Stoll, or Eva Jospin’s embroidered landscape framed by sculpted cardboard, all blur the boundaries between craft, fiction, and symbolic projection. Here, textile carries a vision of the world attentive to connections, wounds, and the survivals of time, as in the work of Edith Dekyndt, whose conceptual and poetic language finds its source in material itself.

The body of works presented here becomes the site of a possible narrative, where the visible and invisible intertwine. Whether evoking forgotten know-how or revealing imaginaries and affects, textile engages a way of embodying the world through a timeless materiality. It thus reshapes the ways in which we compose narratives, through symbol as much as through weave.

With works by Caroline Achaintre, Amina Agueznai, Cathryn Boch, Ange Dakouo, Edith Dekyndt, Rosana Escobar, Sidival Fila, Max Funkat, Pauline Guerrier, Majd Abdel Hamid, Sheila Hicks, Eva Jospin, Asemahle Ntlonti, Junko Oki, Lucy + Jorge Orta, Elise Peroi, Simone Pheulpin, Kustaa Saksi, Diana Scherer, Kiki Smith, Georges Tony Stoll.

Guest designer Leo Orta presents a series of lighting pieces created through basket weaving following his residency in the Camargue. Read more about the residency project here.

About the Collection

Located at the foot of the Arles Arena, the Thalie Collection presents each summer season both its contemporary art collection and invited creators in residence whose practices engage with biobased design, craftsmanship, and local resources. The collection reflects a commitment to ecological narratives, practices integrating artisanal knowledge, and the emergence of scenes from the Global South. It is housed in an 18th-century townhouse, where textile works, ceramics, sculptures, photographs, and site-specific artist commissions are presented each season.

About ALEOR Design

ALEOR Design is a creative studio dedicated to living design. Through consulting, manifesto objects, and craftsmanship, the studio advocates for biobased and upcycled design to help transform the creative industries and the habitats of tomorrow.

Curatorship & Team

Curators: Nathalie GUIOT and Alexia VENOT
Production: Giulia Blasig (for the Collection) and Sien Van den Eynde (for Aleor)
Artwork coordination: Rémi Bragard
Building coordination: Amandine Pravet
Mediation: Maia Le Borgne de la Tour (for the Collection), Alexia Venot and Sien Van den Eynde (Aleor)