2023

ARTER is the associate producer of the exhibition “Carla Fernández. The Future is Handmade” at la Galerie du 19M.

Founder of the eponymous brand, Carla Fernández with her partner Christina Rangel works at the forefront of ethical fashion, documenting and preserving the rich textile heritage of Mexico’s indigenous communities. Her creations are made in collaboration with over 180 weavers, embroiderers, and carvers from across fifteen states of Mexico who use traditional techniques and processes to create contemporary fashion.

The exhibition, which was presented in Denver and Mexico City and is curated by Florence Müller with a design by Pedro Reyes, has here been expanded to include specially designed pieces. Fruitful collaborations between the designer, her partner craftsmen in Mexico, and four residents Maisons of le19M—Goossens, Massaro, Maison Michel, and ERES—bring together traditional and contemporary savoir-faire and techniques and the experience of an object with creative abstraction.

The experiential, educational, and participatory dimension of the designer’s work will also be explored through a series of workshops, lectures, and events. This cultural programme contributes to the recognition of the handicraft professions, encouraging their dissemination and sparking vocations among the general public, schoolchildren, students, families, and lovers of craft.

Invited by the designer and la Galerie du 19M , three artisans from different Mexican states will travel to Paris/Aubervilliers to run workshops on age-old traditional techniques. The public can learn how to paint masks with Felipe Horta, embroider and cut papel amate with Arisbeth González, and work with lacquer with Obdulia Almazán.