Twyg is proud to announce the first Johannesburg edition of Africa Textile Talks, taking place from 9 to 12 October 2025 at 44 Stanley Avenue.
Supported by V&A Watershed, the four-day event celebrates the people, materials, and ideas shaping African fashion and textiles through an exhibition, summit, and book conversation.
The programme opens on Thursday, 9 October with the exhibition Threads of Renewal II, curated by Tandekile Mkize, assisted by Larah Fisher.
Threads of Renewal II unfolds at The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember at 44 Stanley, a sonic archive of African cultural memory curated by Kudzanai Chiurai. This iteration draws particular focus on two interconnected themes namely, Memory & Ancestry and Healing & Resistance.
Through fabric as a medium, the exhibition transforms the space into an alter reflecting a reverence of the subtle power cloth. The exhibition weaves together ancestral legacies and textures of memory. The artist featured in Memory & Ancestry work with cloth as a vessel of remembrance, carrying stories across generations and opening a space exploring how cloth acts as a medium for cultural continuity.
The works in Healing & Resistance explore cloth as a radical gesture of repair and defiance. These works remind us that resistance is also a practice of care, a mending of wounds, communities and ecologies disrupted by histories of violence and exploitation. Here, cloth is both shield and salve, an insistence on resilience and the possibility of renewal.
Artists include Sam Nthlengethwa, Bulumko Mbete, Yonela Makoba, Sibabalwe Ndlwana, Onesimo Bam, Uno July, Nwabisa Ntlokwana, Ditiro Mashigo, The Herd, Liz Maelane and Maria Caley.
Set within a space of archival imagination, this iteration activates a dialogue between past and present, memory and resistance, healing and future-making.
On Saturday, 11 October, the Africa Textile Talks summit presents a half-day programme of talks and panel discussions on circular fashion, regenerative and natural materials, and how the past shapes the future of African fashion. Speakers include: Sheli Masondo, Jesse Naidoo, Tertius Schoeman, Khensani Mohlatlole, Wacy Zacarias, Samekelo Boyde Xaba and Mashudu Mukwevho.
On Sunday morning, author and urbanist Tanya Zack will be speaking about her new book, The Chaos Precinct.
Hosted by Twyg and brought to you by V&A Watershed and 44 Stanley, Africa Textile Talks fosters collaboration between designers, makers, researchers, and brands working towards a regenerative and inclusive textile future.
Venues:
Bioscope for talks and The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember at 44 Stanley Avenue, Johannesburg
Dates:
9–12 October 2025
Tickets:
Available on Quicket here
Image credit: The Dollie House
