Pastoral Futures. Wool Migrations

Materfad, in collaboration with Eina Obra, is presenting Pastoral Futures. Wool Migrations, an exhibition dealing with the fraught reality of wool, highlighting the vitality of artists and collectives mobilised around it, underlining its value as a raw material and the research being conducted to find new applications.  

The exhibition will present works by the renowned Dutch international artist Claudy Jongstra as well as the project Tornen les Esquelles (The Sheep Bells Are Back), backed by Eina Obra and headed by Martina Manyà and Ana Vivero. Among the pieces on display are a monumental original tapestry by Claudy Jongstra entitled “Tangible Transformation”, which commemorates a collaborative stage of eco-activism in Barcelona shared with Tornen les Esquelles.

Furthermore, the show examines the potential of wool to shape alternative futures in the context of shepherding and addresses interconnected issues such as the environmental, cultural and economic unsustainability associated with the disappearance of shepherding, extensive ranching and transhumance. The time has come to recover wool as a material, and to strengthen all of its environmental, artistic and ethical implications.

In parallel to the exhibition a debate headed by artists and experts will be organised on 11 January at the Disseny Hub Barcelona to explore all of these topics.

Pastoral Futures. Wool Migrations is an exhibition organised by Materfad, Barcelona’s Materials Centre, created and promoted by the FAD (Fostering Arts and Design), whose activity focuses on generating, transferring and disseminating knowledge on innovative materials. Collaborating with it is Eina Obra, the platform of EINA, Barcelona’s University Centre for Design and Art, which through design and art seeks to promote the transition of social practices towards socially and environmentally sustainable futures.