Biennale Textile - Brésil

PLAY

du 24/08/2025 au 25/01/2026

Sesc Pinheiros

Rua Paes Leme, 195 - Pinheiros - São Paulo

This edition is co-produced with SESC Pinheiros, which will host the biennial from 24 August 2025 to 25 January 2026 in São Paulo, Brazil.

The Biennial chose the theme ‘PLAY’ because play is a separate space and time, outside of everyday life, with its own rules and limits, which encourages us to explore other ways of relating to ourselves, others and the environment. It is a source of pleasure, educational value, emancipatory energy, and an exercise in reason and strategy. It promotes creativity, problem-solving skills, divergent thinking and the development of new ideas. The international exhibition at the Bargoin Museum adopts the principle of playing and “playing with the rules”; those of presentation, those of “truth” and “knowledge”. It offers artists the museum as a playground, within which each one plays in their own way and reveals something about our contemporary societies

In 2024, the FITE – Textile Biennial was:
18 exhibitions, including 15 in Clermont-Ferrand and 3 in Cervières, Lyon and Retournac
50 artists, designers and heritage collections
32 nationalities
7 highlights
13 workshops, meetings and tours

'What is the Textile Biennial?

Anciennement connue sous le nom de Festival International des Textiles Extra ordinaires (FITE), la Biennale textile se réinvente à chaque édition en s’associant à un nouveau partenaire international, avant de voyager dans le pays de ce partenaire. Seule biennale au monde basée sur ce principe. Tous les deux ans, des artistes issus des cinq continents explorent ensemble un thème d’actualité renouvelé, conviant les collections textiles du musée d’art Roger-Quilliot, Clermont Auvergne Métropole et les collections du nouveau partenaire.
Les objectifs de la Biennale sont de changer le monde, de créer une expérience visant à modifier notre perception des humains, et de contribuer à une dynamique écologique, économique et sociale par l’action des artistes.
La Biennale, depuis sa création ce sont :
192 artistes exposés
54 nationalités représentées
361 000 visiteurs

WHERE & WHEN ?

One theme is voted for 2 years !

After ‘Metamorphoses’, ‘Renaissance’, ‘Rebels’, “Deviations”, ‘Love etc.’ and ‘Imagine!’, the theme ‘PLAY’ has been explored for the 2024_25 edition. While the Biennale is held every even-numbered year in Clermont-Ferrand (France) and Auvergne Rhône Alpes, in odd-numbered years it takes place in another country. This was the case in 2013 in Hué (Vietnam), in 2015 in Manila (Philippines), in 2017 in Mexico City (Mexico), in 2019 in Romania (travelling exhibition) and in 2023 in Lithuania (travelling exhibition). In 2021, the Biennale was due to take place in Dakar (Senegal) but had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2025 edition took place in São Paulo (Brazil).

By Whom

The HS_Projets Association

Association under the 1901 Law. International actors of textiles : artists, designers, dancers etc. The association works to structure exchanges and cooperation between regional, national, european and international actors by organizing events such as the FITE.

The City of Clermont-Ferrand

Nineteenth urban center of France, Clermont-Ferrand encourages co-construction and new modes of cooperation for a common project. Social and cultural links are seen as crucial for the urban life. The city is very much involved in the development and influence of its territory as a human community, with the objective of a common invention of its future.

Musée d'art Roger-Quilliot (MARQ)

The Roger-Quilliot Art Museum (MARQ), located in the historic district of Montferrand, occupies buildings of a former 17th-century Ursuline convent, classified as a historic monument. The museum brings together nearly 2,000 French and European works from the Middle Ages to the 21st century, and now includes the non-European textile collection from the Bargoin Museum. This collection offers an overview of textiles representative of tribal and rural worlds outside Europe (Africa, Asia, America and Oceania, from the 18th to the 21st century), with some items that are unique in France, such as pieces from Yemen and Syria.

Clermont Auvergne
Métropole

Urban community, work for the reinforcement of the intercommunalitiy to make things better together, especially as part of the new region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes