Luxury brand Chanel stages embroidery and weaving exhibition in Dakar

"On the Thread", an exhibition celebrating the diversity of embroidery and weaving, will launch on Thursday (Jan. 12) in Dakar.

It is located in a space dedicated to crafts and fashion launched by Chanel in 2021. The luxury brand unveiled in Senegal that same year, a specialty craft-focused collection.

"We wanted to go a little further, break out of the mould of the Maison Chanel, and open this exhibition creativity," Bruno Pavlovsky, the chairman of Chanel SAS and Chairman of 19M space said.

 "This dialogue brings in artists from all walks of life and especially some based here in Dakar. We wanted to shed light on these ancestral crafts, around the hand, around weaving and embroidery. "

Not far from the 19M gallery, Alassane Koné, a young Malian artist is busy working. 2 of his works are showcased in the exhibiton.

West African know-how

The needle painter is one of the twentyish artists, mostly West African, who are exhibited in one of the two buildings of the Théodore-Monod Museum in Dakar.

"My inspiration comes from my environment. "Whenever I see someone doing something in the street, I take a picture of them and then I come back to the studio and then I reproduce it on my board to draw. There are bonds that unite us, people, like threads. For me to work on my painting, I pull links between threads too because I mix colours."

The thematic tour maps certain Senegalese skills, including a section on indigo dye, and a focus on Casamance, a region in Senegal's south which is the cradle of the mandjak woven loincloth tradition.

The Institut fondamental d'Afrique noire (IFAN), will host -until Match 31- a series of workshops, discussions and debates on crafts throughout the exhibition.