Each year, six candidates, coming from Switzerland and abroad, have the opportunity to work with textile companies in Eastern Switzerland, use a local studio in Arbon and extend their own individual networks over a period of three months. At the public event “TaDA Spinnerei”, which is also attended by international speakers, they can present their projects to an interested public and at the same time discuss them with experts.
TaDA covers the following as part of the residency programme
- Accommodation in Arbon, few minutes walking distance from the workplace and the Bodensee
- Travel expenses
- Contribution to the cost of living
- Workplace in the former textile and engine factory in Arbon (Kreativzentrum ZIK)
- Technology, knowledge and infrastructure support by experts from the 13 partner companies and from the jury
TaDA expects the following from residents
- Development of a new project in cooperation with local textiles company
- Public presentation of their work, organisation of workshops
September – November 2023
Carolina Forss (1989) is a Finnish fashion and textile designer-maker and artist living in Helsinki. Cultural history, couture textile techniques and craftmanship, interpreted through a contemporary lens, are major inspirations for her work. She holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Textile, Clothing and Fashion Design from Aalto University. Her work has been featured in magazines such as Vogue, Elle and Document Journal, and showcased at the H&M Design Award event in London, the Copenhagen Fashion Week and the Paris Fashion Week. Her graduate collection attracted significant attention both nationally and internationally, and was presented at institutes such as the Royal Academy of Art in London, the Finnish Cultural Institute in Paris, and the Spiral in Tokyo.
September – November 2023
Pascal Heimann (1989) is a textile designer from Switzerland, working in Basel. With his TaDA residency project, he strives to redefine the transformation of digital images into fabric using computer programs. He studied process design at HyperWerk, HGK/FHNW, and subsequently deepened his experience in fashion and textiles with an apprenticeship at the HF Textile Design in Basel. After completing his studies, Pascal Heimann took on a permanent position as a designer at Jakob Schlaepfer. He later learned the art of weaving at Minnotex GmbH in Herzogenbuchsee, the last silk weaving mill in Switzerland. Pascal Heimann is a member of the Institute for Textile Research and creates designs under his own label «Pascal Heimann».
April – June 2023
Rafael Kouto (1990) is a creative director, fashion & textile designer and university lecturer from Ticino, Switzerland. In 2017, he launched an avant-garde fashion brand under his name, engaging in projects that promote upcycling, community couture and sustainability. Rafael Kouto advocates upcycling through his workshops in collaboration with various institutions and his teaching as an associate professor in Fashion Design at IUAV University of Venice. From 2021 to 2022, he was a stipendiary at Istituto Svizzero in Milan, where he examined the development of participatory projects related to upcycling, climate change and open source by means of a video installation and a workshop, which were presented last year during the Design Week in Milan and in Eindhoven (NL). After studying Fashion Design at FHNW-HGK in Basel (2010-2014) he earned an MA in the Fashion Matters programme at Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam (2015-2017). His brand won the Lotto Sport & Diesel International Talents Support Awards 2019; the Swiss Design Awards 2018 and 2019 in the Fashion & Textile category (finalist 2020 and 2022) and the Gebert Ambiente Design Award 2020–2021 (finalist 2022-2023).
April – June 2023
Adrian Pepe (1984) is a Honduran-born fibre artist presently residing in Beirut, Lebanon. His artistic practice is an ongoing investigation of process and material. His work focuses on textile practices of the Levant. He works hand-in-hand with artisans from the region, unearthing ancient craft practices and weaving them into contemporary pieces. His integrated approach entwines culture, history and performance with art, design and interiors. In his work, he performs a sort of shadowgraphy, using objects and experiences as tools to enable an open discourse on materiality, our morphing cultural landscape and our contemporary condition. Adrian Pepe graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in the United States. In 2021, Adrian Pepe won the SCAD Alumni Atelier Grant and the Fiber Arts Network: FELT Fiber Transformed Award. Solo and group exhibitions of his include Beirut Concept at Dubai Design Week, UAE (2021); Entangled Matters at Agial Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon (2021); Harvest: Mushroom Explorations at Beirut Design Week, Lebanon (2016); Hair Explorationsat Non-Fiction Gallery, Savannah, GA (2013); and Seoul Design Fair, South Korea (2010).
April – June 2023
Chun Shao is a multimedia artist whose research interests encompass the field of multimedia installation, e-textiles, speculative design, and data-driven art. She studied Fine Arts at the Academy of Art in Hangzhou in China and graduated from the School of Art Institute of Chicago in the Performance Department. In 2019, she received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Washington at the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media. Her most recent research focuses on interactive textiles, exploring the poetics between touch and emotion. From 2014 to 2018, Shao taught at the University of Washington in Seattle, along with numerous exhibitions, awards, and residencies.
September – November 2023
Axelle Stiefel (1988) is a French-Swiss artist based in Geneva. Starting from situations, her approach has been built through the experience of performative and cinematic apparatuses. She pursues a line of research, called the red thread, which consists of a metaphorology of textile allowing her to question the notions of continuity and permanence. Embedded in various organizations, the artist thinks the work through interaction and integration. These characteristics lead her to engage in the activities of design, concept development and consulting. She has worked in various international institutions such as Wiels Brussels BE (2017), De Warande Turnhout BE (2018), Kunst Haus Glarus GL (2018), Kunst Raum Riehen BL (2019), Kunstraum Niederösterreich Vienna AT (2019), Fri Art FR (2020), Milieu BE (2020), Istituto Svizzero Milano IT (2020). She curates the festival TexteContact and edits the magazine Artist Network Theory.
September – November 2020
Stéphanie Baechler is an artist and textile designer. She studied textile design at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) and completed a Master's in fashion at Amsterdam University of the Arts (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, ArtEZ) in the Netherlands. Stéphanie worked as a Textile Developer/Design Assistant for Hussein Chalayan in London and was Head of Print Design for the Swiss textile company Jakob Schlaepfer for three years. Since then, her work has evolved to include sculpture and installation, and has focused on the interplay between ceramics and textiles. Her research centres on the tactile dimension and the interaction between body, movement and space.
April – June 2022
Laura Deschl is a social designer and artistic researcher with a background in fashion and textiles. She holds a Master of Fine Arts and Design from the Design Academy Eindhoven. With her interdisciplinary approach, she generates a discourse between fields that usually have little overlap. Her research-driven academic work is often accompanied by object or material based forms of expression. Laura Deschl's current research focuses on the field of therapeutic textiles. Most of her work explores the relationship between subject and object – stemming from her interest in affect psychology and in the question of how objects can initiate, regulate and influence human emotions.
September – November 2022
Ana Micaela Fernández Martín is a multidisciplinary artist specializing in connections between drawings and fabrics. She is currently teaching a course about direct intervention methods on natural textiles at "Factoría Cultural" (Avilés, Asturias) and complements her training with courses in graphic design, serigraphy and engraving. She is constantly searching for new forms of graphic expression that connect illustration and weaving, treating the latter as a storytelling medium. Through painting and drawing, screen printing, stamping, engraving and other preparatory and finishing processes, she brings fabric to life as a canvas for artistic creation. Her graphic dialogue is open, experimental and vital. Ana Micaela has a degree in Fine Arts and Fashion Design with two honourable mentions from the University of Vigo and from ESDEMGA (Galicia).
April – June 2021
Ganit Goldstein is a textile and 3D fashion designer whose work focuses mainly on pioneering the use of 3D printing fabrication for smart textile developments. Ganit is studying for an MA at the Royal College of Art in London, where her practice demonstrates her interdisciplinary approach to design, in which she mixes traditional and innovative techniques, creating novelty within programmable materials. Ganit was awarded the Re-FREAM Horizon 2020 grant to re-imagine the manufacturing process of 3D textiles together with a community of scientists and leading companies around Europe. Her collections have been presented at exhibitions and museums globally, including Milan Design Week 2019, New York Textile Month the Tel Aviv Biennale of Crafts & Design 2020, and more.
September – November 2020
Alexandra Hopf studied at Düsseldorf's Kunstakademie (Art Academy). In her work, she challenges the construction of art history by reinterpreting the historic avant-garde. She is particularly interested in the Russian avant-garde as an expression of the «new man» and the translation of the geometric and block-like silhouettes of Suprematist painting into the realm of the sculptural. Alexandra Hopf weaves together fact and fiction through the media of painting, photography, sculpture and film. She has received a number of bursaries and residencies, and her work has been shown throughout Europe in both solo and group exhibitions. Alexandra Hopf asks the same pertinent questions as the former avant-garde, but addresses them within a global economic crisis context.
April – June 2021
Tobias Kaspar, based in Zurich and Riga, is an artist working in contemporary art with a strong interest in fashion and textiles. Kunsthalle Bern and Verlag der Buchhandlung Franz und Walther König published an artist’s monograph on him entitled “Independence” in 2020. Over the last decade, Kaspar has realized numerous solo exhibitions at locations such as Kunsthalle Bern; Kunsthalle, Sao Paulo; Cinecittà Studios, Rome;Kim? Contemporary art Center, Riga, Latvia; Midway Contemporary Art Center, Minneapolis; Peter Kilchmann Galerie, Zurich, and Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing. With ”Rented Life”, Tobias Kaspar has ented out his life for 2020/21 to twenty subscribers and is currently preparing the homonymous museum show due to open at Mamco, Geneva, in summer 2021.
April – June 2021
Aesun Kim is an artist and creative practitioner from South Korea, interested in human-computer interaction. Her practice focuses on wearable interface based on biometric data and expresses new digital aesthetics. She developed her interactive arts and wearable design works at the University of Arts and Industrial Design Linz (AT) and Partly University of the Arts London (UK). Her current research and workshops revolve around exploring creative, technical e-textiles and wearable interfaces.
September – November 2021
Sonia Li is a Taiwanese-American artist living and working in Brooklyn. Growing up in more than one country, the exposure to different cultures shaped Li's empathetic approach and innate sensibility towards universal expressions of humanity. She works with installation, performance and social space. Linked to stages of personal transformation, she turns metaphors of internal dialogues into multi-sensory experiences, brought alive by her use of technology, blending physical materials with digital tools to break the invisible divider between the artwork, concept and viewer. She participated in international exhibitions, among others at Centro Cultural FIESP (Brasil), Naves Matadero (Spain), CADAF NYC (USA). Her videos are in the exclusive online Elementum.art collection. In 2018 she was awarded a grant from the Taiwan Ministry of Culture and the Chen Yung Memorial Foundation.
September – November 2022
Victoria Manganiello is an American artist, designer, educator and organizer working primarily with textiles. Her recent projects explore themes in women’s work, technology and food. She has received multiple internationally recognized grants, commissions, and residency appointments, from Wave Farm, S&R Foundation, Center for Craft, The Wallstreet Journal, Harvest Works, AIR Gallery and others. She has exhibited her work internationally across Europe, in Taiwan and throughout the USA at venues including Tang Museum, Museum of Art and Design, Bozar, Ars Electronica and Queens Museum. She is also a part-time professor at NYU and Parsons School of Design.
April – June 2021
Maidje Meergans is a documentary photographer from Berlin. She initially studied Textile and Surface Design as well as Visual Communication at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee (Academy of Art). In 2018 she completed her further education at the Ostkreuzschule for Photography, where she early on focused on social documentary topics, with a special interest in sustainability, unique stories and people. Meergans is part of the artist-run AFF Galerie in Berlin, where she is involved in organizing and curating exhibitions. AFF Galerie is a platform for contemporary photography that regularly presents emerging artists. Her plan for TaDA is to concentrate on the craftspeople working in the textile industry.
September – November 2021
Benjamin Mengistu Navet studied Fashion Design at La Cambre (Brussels) and completed his education with a master in Textile Design at the KASK School of Arts (Gent). His main focus is on creating a dialogue between industry and craftsmanship, in order to question the production process of objects. Based on research in post-colonial practices in the field of fashion and textiles, Benjamin is currently investigating his own Ethiopian background through pattern making and garment creation, combining traditional techniques and industry. He lives and works in Brussels.
September – November 2020
Quang Vinh Nguyen is a product designer. He completed his Bachelor studies with distinction at the Lausanne School of Arts and Design (ECAL). He uses sustainable materials and processes for his product design, and is interested in concrete solutions on contemporary challenges that are still uncertain. As a Swiss designer with Vietnamese roots he is familiar with both western and Asian mentalities. Quang Vinh Nguyen is a co-founder of the multidisciplinary project «Căng tin», which investigates the culinary and folksy traditions of Vietnam in various media (including performances, objects and print).
April – June 2022
Edit Oderbolz is an artist based in Basel, Switzerland. Dealing with space is a central theme in her artistic work. Her conceptual works mainly comprise objects, spatial drawings and installations, which she derives from her immediate environment and from everyday architecture. Her focus is on social features and structures. As a result, her work raises questions about the nature of drawing, painting, form, process, and transience. Edit Oderbolz studied at the Hochschule für Kunst in Basel. Her works have been shown internationally in numerous solo exhibitions, including Crac Alsace Altkirch, Kunstverein Nürnberg, and Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel. She has been awarded several work grants, residencies and prizes for her artwork.
April – June 2022
Olaniyi Rasheed Akindiya is an interdisciplinary artist born in Lagos, Nigeria. He lives and works alternately in his native city and in Austin, Texas. His works are inspired by the traditional textiles and iconic weaving crafts of Nigeria and Ghana. He explores the role of textiles in Nigeria’s society and the unwritten history of industrial embroidery in his country, also in relation to trade with Europe. He earned his initial BSC degree in Biochemistry from the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta Nigeria (1991), and subsequently a degree in Fine and Applied Art at the Institute of Textile Technology Art & Design in Lagos (1995).
September – November 2020
Selina Reiterer is an artist and textile designer. After her design studies in Berlin and Paris she worked in various cooperations and carried out research at the ETH Zurich in the framework of a project on the connection between technology and design perspectives. Since then she has investigated the relations between object and resonance with textile and sound-oriented space installations. Oliver Maklott is a media artist. After an apprenticeship in news electronics he studied electronic music and sound technology in Vienna. He is a co-founder of various organisations that create real and virtual spaces for experiments and presentations for artists in the fields of music and media. Selina Reiterer and Oliver Maklott share their interest for multiple sensory perceptions. Their artistic practice converges in joint compositions of different media, especially haptic surfaces and objects with sound.
September – November 2022
Otto Rummukainen (b. 1993, Jyväskylä) is a multidisciplinary artist who works in the field of art and design. He holds a master's degree from the Fashion, Clothing and Textile master’s program of Aalto University. During his studies, in addition to textile design, Rummukainen worked with ceramic and glass art. In his works, Rummukainen hopes the viewers find their own perspective on the art pieces. He does not want to force a clear point of view upon the viewer. Rummukainen’s naïve style implements children’s drawing but deals with various topics and meanings through dark themes. Rummukainen is especially interested in the ups and downs of life. Through these events, Rummukainen creates a fictional world where one can momentarily escape everyday life.
September – November 2022
Nelli Singer is a textile designer with a focus on active materials research. Her interest is in innovative material structures and the experimental process of their design. Her creative work is characterized by her interdisciplinary approach involving design, art, architecture, natural sciences and technology. Nelli Singer gained a Master of Arts in textile and surface design at the Weissensee school of art in Berlin. Since September 2020 she has been part of Cluster of Excellence "Matters of Activity". Exhibits of her works, "knitted active wooden structures", have been shown at the Humboldt Forum under the heading "Active Curtain" and in the Tieranatomisches Theater entitled "Stretching Materialities".
September – November 2021
Andrea Winkler studied Visual Communication in Hamburg and Fine Art Media in London. She is interested in spatial scenarios and reruns of set pieces from daily life; her works range between installation, sculpture and «objet trouvé». These object collages and scenic complexes reflect her interest in theatricality, commodity fetishism, in safety and usability awareness. Her works have been displayed in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad, gaining many distinctions. In 2019 she received the Innogy VISIT Award and the promotional grant from the UBS Culture Foundation for her research on post-digitalisation and new materialism.
