Every piece of fabric we put on—which wears out, fades, tears over time, and is mended with a needle and thread—is actually a silent memory reservoir turning inward. Textile material traps every touch, labor, and lived experience between its fibers. The Whitworth gallery in Manchester invites the audience to explore this resilient world of fabric through the exhibition “Hyundai Translocal Series: Entangled and Woven,” set to open its doors on July 10, 2026. The selection goes beyond presenting textiles merely as objects, focusing instead on stories where global migration, labor, and collective care intertwine.
The exhibition brings together brand-new productions by eight contemporary artists and collectives from Korea and India alongside historical textiles from the Whitworth’s own archives. The project establishes surprising connections between Manchester’s deep-rooted industrial past and the East’s living craft traditions, which are kneaded with migration and labor. Realized in partnership with the Cheongju Craft Biennale 2025 and in collaboration with Hyundai Motor Company, this exhibition treats fabrics not as historical artifacts locked inside museum display cases, but as active, transforming, and living materials. Through weaving, dyeing, embroidery, and hand-spinning techniques, it reveals how collective skill is passed down and shared between generations.
Within the gallery space, site-specific new installations by the invited contemporary artists directly confront Indian and Korean textile specimens whose ages exceed 400 years. Wrenching these historical pieces from being passive objects and placing them into a dialogue with contemporary works exposes the realities behind creativity, industry, privacy, and production processes. The vast majority of the new works in the exhibition are the product of close collaborations carried out with local artisan communities in Korea and India. Defending time, shared knowledge, and slow production against the consumption imposed by fast fashion and mass production, these projects offer a refreshing alternative to industrial speed.
Hyundai Translocal Series: Entangled and Woven forces us to slow down the pace of the mass-production world, look closer at the material, and re-notice the textures that have seeped into daily life. While creating a tactile awareness that transcends the boundaries of the sense of sight, the exhibition tracks the cultural traces behind each texture. Reminding us of the human labor and global networks behind the items that consumer culture has rendered ordinary, this exhibition proves that textile is not just a material, but a powerful carrier of memory.
Exhibition Details:
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Venue: The Whitworth, Manchester
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Exhibition Title: Hyundai Translocal Series: Entangled and Woven
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Dates: From July 10, 2026 onwards (Upcoming Exhibition)
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Partnerships: Cheongju Craft Biennale 2025 & Hyundai Motor Company
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Core Mediums: Weaving, natural dyeing, hand-embroidery, hand-spinning, and site-specific installations.
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Core Themes: Translocal craft networks, industrial vs. slow heritage, archival textile dialogues, and fibers as memory repositories.
