Interdisciplinary Methodological and Artistic Perspectives in Contemporary Research on Textile Design and Textile Art (IMPUP-TEX)

Project Title: Interdisciplinary Methodological and Artistic Perspectives in Contemporary Research on Textile Design and Textile Art (IMPUP-TEX)

Project Code: TTF-IIP-08

Funding Source: European Union NextGenerationEU – Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)

Project Team Leader: Associate Professor of Art Josipa Štefanec

Research Team:

• Professor of Art Andrea Pavetić

• Professor of Art Koraljka Kovač Dugandžić

• Professor of Art Paulina Jazvić

• Associate Professor of Art Lea Popinjač

• Assistant Professor of Art Ivana Mrčela

• Assistant Professor of Art Marin Sovar

• Assistant Professor Petra Krpan, PhD

• Đurđica Kocijančić, mag.ing.techn.text.

Project Summary:

This project explores textile art and textile design through an interdisciplinary framework that integrates methodological approaches from the humanities with practices of art, contemporary art, and design. The starting premise of the research is that textiles represent a multilayered phenomenon that extends beyond purely aesthetic and functional dimensions, requiring an approach that incorporates theoretical and artistic research, material analysis, and creative practice. The project seeks to establish a productive dialogue between scientific and artistic research paradigms, particularly those emerging from the fields of cultural studies, anthropology, visual studies, and contemporary artistic practice. By employing qualitative methods, discourse analysis, and visual analysis, combined with experimental and participatory approaches in textile design, the project investigates complex relationships between materiality, identity, social norms, and cultural meanings.

The main goal of the project is to foster new understandings of textile art and textile design as dynamic spaces where artistic, social, symbolic, and aesthetic values intersect, while affirming creative and artistic practices as legitimate forms of knowledge production. Through the development of a theoretical-practical research model that transcends disciplinary boundaries, the project contributes to contemporary scholarly and artistic debates and promotes critical reflection on the role of textile art and textile design in culture and society today.

Project Objective:

This project arises from the need for a more comprehensive and theoretically grounded understanding of textiles as a culturally, socially, and artistically complex phenomenon. Textiles are not only a field of aesthetic expression but also a platform for analysing social relations, identities, memory, gender and class dynamics, as well as ecology and sustainability. The project is conceived as an interdisciplinary study that brings together methodological approaches from cultural studies, anthropology, ethnology, visual studies, sociology, art history, and contemporary artistic and design practices. It aims to connect scientific and artistic methods in order to address the material, symbolic, and communicative dimensions of textile art and textiles, considering them not only as objects of analysis but also as active elements within social processes, cultural practices, and contemporary ecological challenges.

In doing so, the project seeks to create a framework that enables innovative interpretations of textiles through the perspectives of cultural studies, anthropology, ethnology, visual culture, art history, and design. This framework is intended to have applications in theory, education, artistic production, and public discourse.