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.
The next call for applications will open in summer 2024.
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
April – June 2024
Giulio Massimo Gallana (1999) is a textile designer and artist from Bern. In his work, he explores different strategies of remanufacturing and how old clothes, or rather the fabric of old clothes, can be refined in a scalable way. He always looks at new strategies to develop further approaches to textile finishing. Giulio Massimo Gallana graduated from the TAF (Talentförderung Gestaltung und Kunst) for Design and Art and then studied textile design at HSLU. In winter 2023-24, he did an internship as a textile designer with Jakob Schlaepfer and provides input on the CLO3D fashion software at HSLU (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts) Design Film Kunst. His final project on the topic of remanufacturing was nominated for the "Swiss design bachelor awards 2023" and named one of the "most intriguing fashion student design projects of 22/23" by Dezeen.com.
September – November 2024
Elizabeth Hong (1989) is an American designer and researcher based in Paris, France. Often working on site-specific projects, her work looks into local materials with a strong focus on textiles and natural fibers, craft, and the intertwining histories of land, humans, and animals. Creating different forms of narration such as objects, material experimentation and writing, she explores ways to tell a story of a place, alternative futures, and the interconnectedness of our multi-species communities. Elizabeth Hong studied at the University of Washington where she completed her Bachelor of Arts in American Indian Studies and at ENSCI–Les Ateliers with a Master in Industrial Design.
marc norbert hörler (1989, they/them) is an artist, performer and poet living and working between Switzerland and Berlin. Marc’s research during TaDA focuses on the relationship between language, textile and performance, with a specific interest in scented garments as tools for sensuous story-telling and ways of inscribing marginalised stories into the weave of fabrics. marc holds a BA Fine Art from the Institute Art Gender Nature at FHNW Academy of Art and Design (CH)/Academy of Fine Art Warsaw (PL) and an MA Art Praxis at the Dutch Art Institute (NL). Selected exhibitions, nominations and awards* include Swiss Art Awards (2024), Swiss Performance Art Award (2023), Vordemberge-Gildewart Award (2023), Young West (2023), Working Grant Basel* (2023), Schloss Charlottenburg Berlin (2023), Kaskadenkondensator Basel (2022).
April – June 2024
Elisabeth Leerssen (1988) is a Dutch textile designer, founder of Pâle Studio, situated in Paris. Since 2018, Pâle Studio has been dedicated to designing and developing interior textiles, with a focus on high performance textiles and sustainability. In parallel, the studio works on research projects that connect traditional textile processes with contemporary ecological concerns. The aim is to question the role of the designer amid the ecological transition. The focus is on finding local solutions while critically reflecting on various sustainable approaches. After completing her studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam, 2012) Elisabeth Leerssen career as a textile designer has spanned from designing and developing textiles for fashion to interior. Prior to establishing Pale Studio Elisabeth Leerssen held significant roles in product development at Kvadrat (DK), Marine Serre and Études Studio (FR). She has shown her dedication to the field by participating in several exhibitions, such as ‘La nouvelle garde du design soutenable’, AMOUR VIVANT, Paris, and ‘ABSTRACTION(S), Textile et design,’ at ARCADE Design à la Campagne, Sainte-Colombe.
April – June 2024
Bi Rongrong (1982) is a Shanghai based artist. She collects and extracts patterns from natural landscapes, architecture, street posters, or surfaces of everyday objects. For her, the process of constructing these patterns can be described as “weaving". Through drawing, painting, traditional hand weaving, machine knitting/weaving, animation, and spatial installations, she is constantly searching for new methods to give different materials new and developing connections. She received her MA in Chinese Traditional Landscape Painting at Sichuan University in 2008, followed by an MFA in Painting from the Frank Mohr Institute in the Netherlands. Her works have been exhibited in various art institutions and public art projects, including, among others, Centre for Heritage Arts & Textile (Hong Kong), Shanghai Museum of Glass, Cass Sculpture Foundation (UK), Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art. In 2022, Bi Rongrong was the winner of the Spirit of Ecstasy Challenge in Muse, the Rolls-Royce Arts Programme.
September – November 2024
Anshu Singh (1989) is an artist from Varanasi, India. Her artistic journey took root in her mother’s boutique, where she was exposed to the weaver’s community that frequented the establishment. Her work embraces the intersection of traditional crafts and contemporary contexts. Inspired by the craftsmanship of the marginalized communities traditionally employed in embroidery ateliers, Anshu Singh explores the possibilities afforded by unconventional materials. She obtained a Master’s degree in Weaving and Textile Design from the Banaras Hindu University. She has most recently participated in Fault Lines (2023), a group exhibition at Conflictorium Museum, Ahmedabad, and participated in Art & Soul Foundation’s display at the 2023 India Art Fair, New Delhi. She was awarded the Young Artist Scholarship in Visual Art (2014-2015) by the Ministry of Human Resource Department, Government of India, New Delhi. Anshu Singh lives and works in Varanasi, India.
September – November 2020
Stephanie Baechler (1983) is an artist and textile designer. She 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. Stephanie Baechler studied textile design at HSLU Lucerne and earned a master's degree in fashion at ArtEZ (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten) in Holland in 2013. In addition to previous residencies such as at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (2016-2017) and funding awards from the UBS Cultural Foundation (2021) and the Mondrian Fund (2021), her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in Switzerland and abroad. Most recently, for example, at Art Rotterdam with Whitehouse Gallery (2021) or at the Regionale at the Centre d'art Pasquart (2021).
April – June 2022
Laura Deschl (1993) is a social designer and artistic researcher with a background in fashion and textiles. 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. Laura Deschl received a Master of Fine Arts and Design from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2021 and works between the Netherlands and Berlin. She has already shown her work at the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven (2021) and at the Werkschau in Pforzheim (2019), among others.
September – November 2022
Ana Micaela Fernandez Martin (1996) is a multidisciplinary artist from Santander, Spain. She specializes in combining drawings and textiles, and is in constant search of new graphic expressions that combine illustration and weaving; the latter she considers as a medium to tell stories. Through painting and drawing, screen printing, embossing, engraving and other preparatory and finishing processes, she brings textiles to life in her artistic work. In 2021 Micaela Fernández Martí graduated with honors in Fine Arts and Fashion Design from the University of Vigo and ESDEMGA (Galicia) and currently teaches at the Factoria Cultural (Aviles, Asturias) on intervention methods on natural textiles.
September – November 2023
Carolina Forss (1989) is a Finnish fashion and textile designer-maker and artist who lives and works in Helsinki. She takes inspiration for her work from cultural history, couture textile techniques, and craftmanship interpreted through a contemporary lens. Her work has been featured in magazines such as Vogue, Elle, and Document journal, and showcased at the H&M Design Award in London, at the Copenhagen Fashion Week, and at the Paris Fashion Week. She holds a Master’s degree in Textile, Clothing and Fashion Design from Aalto University.Her graduate collection gained significant attention both nationally and internationally, and she was invited to present it at institutes such as the Royal Academy of Art in London, the Finnish Cultural Institute in Paris, and the Spiral in Tokyo.
April – June 2021
Ganit Goldstein (1992) is a London-based fashion and textile designer. Her work focuses on the innovative use of 3D printing processes and scans. She uses them to produce novel three-dimensional textiles and objects such as shoes, jewelry and garments. Ganit Goldstein's practice demonstrates her interdisciplinary approach to design, in which she mixes traditional and innovative techniques, creating novelty within programmable materials. In 2018, she graduated from Jerusalem's Bezal'el Academy of Art and Design, and graduated with a master's degree from the Royal College of Art in London in 2021. Her collections have been presented at exhibitions and museums globally, including Milan Design Week (2019), New York Textile Month (2018), Munich Jewelry Week (2019), and the Tel Aviv Biennial of Crafts & Design (2020). In 2019, she received the Re-FREAM Horizon 2020 grant to research the manufacturing process of 3D textiles.
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 translation of digital images into textiles using computer programs. He studied process design at HyperWerk, HGK/FHNW, and subsequently pursued his interest in fashion and textiles with an apprenticeship at the HF Textile Design in Basel. After completing his education, Pascal Heimann accepted a permanent position as a designer at Jakob Schlaepfer. He later learned the art of weaving in the production of the last silk weaving mill in Switzerland, the company Minnotex GmbH in Herzogenbuchsee. Pascal Heimann is a member of the Institute for Textile Research and designs under his own label «Pascal Heimann
September – November 2020
In her works, the German artist Alexandra Hopf (1968) challenges the construction of art history by reinterpreting the historical 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. Hopf studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf until 1996 and subsequently received various scholarships and residencies such as at the Cité International des Arts in Paris (2014) and the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Bethany, USA (2018). Her work has also been shown in exhibitions across Europe. Most recently, for example, at Sobering Gallery in Paris (2019) or at Projektraum Tête in Berlin (2018).
April – June 2021
Tobias Kaspar (1984), based in Zurich and Riga, works in the field of contemporary art with a strong interest in fashion and textiles and in questions about the relationship between art and artists in society. After studying fine arts in Hamburg and the Städelschule in Frankfurt, the artist has realized numerous solo exhibitions. For example, at Kunsthalle Bern (2018), Kunsthalle Sao Paulo (2015), Cinecittà Studios Rome (2016), Kim? Contemporary Art Center Riga in Lithuania (2019), Midway Contemporary Art Center Minneapolis (2013), Galerie Urs Meile in Beijing (2019), and recurrently at Galerie Peter Kilchmann in Zurich (most recently in 2020). With "Rented Life" Tobias Kaspar has rented his life to twenty clients for 2020/21. Under this title, an exhibition is also to take place in the summer of 2021 at the Geneva MAMCO. In collaboration with the Kunsthalle Bern, the monograph "Independence" about his work was published in 2020 by the Franz und Walther König bookstore.
April – June 2021
South Korean artist Aesun Kim (1991) is a creative practitioner 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.
April – June 2023
Rafael Kouto (1990) is a creative director, fashion and textile designer and professor 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 for upcycling through his workshops in collaboration with various institutions and in his teaching as an associate professor in Fashion Design at IUAV University of Venice. He has been fellow at Istituto Svizzero in Milan, 2021–2022, during which time he examined the development of participatory projects related to upcycling, climate change, and open source through a video installation and workshop presented last year during the Design Week in Milan (CH) and Eindhoven (NL). After studying Fashion Design at FHNW-HGK in Basel (2010–2014), he earned an MA in the Fashion Matters program at Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam (2015–2017). His brand won the Lotto Sport & Diesel International Talents Support Awards 2019; the Swiss Design Awards in the Fashion & Textile category 2018 and 2019, and was finalist in 2020 and 2022; and the Gebert Ambiente Design Award 2020–2021, finalist in 2022–2023.
September – November 2021
Sonia Li (1983) 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. In 2014, the artist graduated with a Master's degree in Interaction Design from Tisch School of the Arts in New York. Since then, she has participated in several international exhibitions, including Centro Cultural FIESP in Brazil (2018), Naves Matadero in Spain (2019), and CADAF NYC in the US (2019). Her videos are part of the exclusive online collection Elementum.art. In 2018 she was awarded a grant from the Taiwan Ministry of Culture and the Chen Yung Memorial Foundation.
September – November 2022
Victoria Manganiello (1989) is an American artist, designer, educator, and organizer working primarily with textiles. Her recent projects explore themes in women's work, technology and food. Manganiello studied art history at Skidmore College and graduated with a Masters in Art Education & Community Practice from New York University in 2015. She participated in residencies at the Icelandic Textile Center in 2021 or the Australian Tapestry Workshop in Melbourne in 2022. Her work has already been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe, Taiwan and the USA; Among others at the Tang Museum (2022), Museum of Art and Design (2019), Bozar (2020) and at Ars Electronica (2020). Manganiello has received other commissions from Wave Farm, S&R Foundation, Center for Craft, Wallstreet Journal, Harvest Works, and Air Gallery, for example. Since 2017, she has been a professor at New York University and Parsons School of Design.
April – June 2021
Maidje Meergans (1991) is a documentary photographer from Berlin. In her work, the artist deals with social documentary issues, with a special focus on themes of sustainability, the uniqueness of stories and people, and the subjectivity of historiography. The artist studied textile and surface design as well as visual communication at the Weissensee Kunsthochschule Berlin. She also completed advanced training at the Ostkreuzschule für Photographie in 2018. Since 2019, Meergans has been part of the artist-run gallery AFF in Berlin, a platform for contemporary photography that regularly presents emerging artists. Here she organizes and curates exhibitions. She has shown her own work in several exhibitions in Germany such as Ori Galerie (2017, 2019) or Fotogalerie Friederichshain (2021).
September – November 2021
Benjamin Mengistu Navet (1994) lives and works in Brussels. 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. Mengistu Navet studied fashion design at the La Cambre School of Visual Arts (Brussels) and graduated with a master's degree in textile design from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) in Gent.
September – November 2020
Quang Vinh Nguyen (1995) is a product designer. 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). In 2019, Nguyen also received his bachelor's degree with honors from the Lausanne School of Art and Design (ECAL).
April – June 2022
In the work of the Swiss artist Edit Oderbolz (1966), the preoccupation with space is a central theme. Her conceptual works mainly comprise objects, spatial drawings and installations. They derive as subjective extracts from the immediate environment and from everyday architectures. Her attention is focused on social features and structures. The works always pose art-immanent questions about drawing, painting, form, process, and transience. Oderbolz studied at the Hochschule für Kunst in Basel from 1996-1999. Her works have been shown internationally in numerous solo exhibitions, including Crac Alsace Altkirch (2018), Kunstverein Nürnberg (2017), and Museum für Gegenwartskunst Basel (2004). She has been awarded several work grants, residencies and prizes for her artistic activity.
April – June 2023
Adrian Pepe (1984) is a Honduran-born fiber artist presently residing in Beirut, Lebanon. His artistic practice is an ongoing investigation on process and material. His work focuses on textile practices from the Levant, working hand-in-hand with artisans of the region, unearthing ancient craft practices and weaving them into contemporary pieces. His integrated approach interlinks culture, history, and performance with art, design, and interiors. In his work, he performs a sort of shadowgraphy, crafting objects and experiences as tools to enable an open discourse on materiality, our changing cultural landscape, and our present condition. Adrian Pepe graduated with 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 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 Explorations at Non-Fiction Gallery, Savannah, GA (2013); and Seoul Design Fair, South Korea (2010).
April – June 2022
Born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1973, Olaniyi Rasheed Akindiya 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. Prior to graduating with a degree in applied arts from the Institute of Textile Technology Art & Design in Lagos in 1995, the artist studied biochemistry at the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta, Nigeria. In addition to numerous exhibitions and residencies worldwide, the artist was awarded the Contemporary Black Art Award by the African American Arts & Music Festival in Michigan, USA in 2021.
September – November 2020
Selina Reiterer (1985) is an artist and textile designer. In her work, Reiterer explores the relationships between object and resonance with textile and sound-oriented spatial installations. After completing design studies in Berlin and Paris in 2013, she worked in various collaborations and conducted research at ETH Zurich on a project linking technology and design perspectives. Most recently, Reiterer showed her work at Kunstraum oxyd in Winterthur (2019) and Kulturfolger in Zurich (2018). Oliver Maklott (1976) is a media artist. After an apprenticeship in news electronics, he studied electronic music and sound engineering in Vienna. He is co-founder of various organizations that create real and virtual spaces for artists in music and media to experiment and present. Selina Reiterer and Oliver Maklott span their interest in craft, form and technology; they both believe that multiple sensory perceptions in technological development can enrich our visions. Their respective artistic practices coalesce into compositions from a variety of media, particularly those involving haptic surfaces and sound. The duo has already collaborated on exhibitions at Bildraum Bodensee (2016) and Vienna Design Week (2017, 2018).
September – November 2022
Otto Rummukainen (1993) is a multidisciplinary artist from Finland who works between the fields of art and design. In addition to textile design, Rummukainen is also recurrently engaged in ceramic and glass art. Rather than presenting viewers with a clear-cut point of view, Rummukainen encourages them to find their own perspective on the works. In form, Rummukainen's naïve style is based on children's drawings. In terms of content, however, the artist deals with various profound and dark themes. Thus, Rummukainen is particularly interested in the ups and downs of life. Through these events, the artist creates a fictional world where you can escape from everyday life for a moment. In 2020, he completed a master's degree in fashion, clothing and textiles at Aalto University.
April – June 2023
Chun Shao (1987) is a Chinese multimedia artist whose research interests include multimedia installation, e-textiles, speculative design, and data-driven art. Her recent research focuses on interactive textiles, exploring the poetics between touch and emotion. She studied Fine Arts at the Hangzhou Academy of Art in China and graduated from the School of Art Institute of Chicago in 2013 in Performance. In 2019, she received her PhD in Philosophy from the University of Washington at the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media. In addition to numerous international exhibitions, awards, and residencies, Shao also taught at the University of Washington in Seattle from 2014 to 2018.
September – November 2022
Nelli Singer (1989) is a German 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 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 2021
Andrea Winkler (1975) 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. The artist studied Visual Communication at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg and received a Masters in Fine Art Media from the Slade School in London in 2003. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions in Germany and abroad such as most recently at HMKV in Dortmund (2021), Salon Plastique in Berlin (2018) and Devening Projects in Chicago (2017). The artist also received the 2019 Innogy VISIT Award and the UBS Cultural Foundation Grant for her research on post-digitality and new materialism.
