Quadrologues

In September 2022, eight students of the textile and fashion design departments of Burg Giebichenstein University of Art & Design Halle travelled to Central Asia to start a collaborative project with designers from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.The two-and-a-half-week trip started in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, continued via Samarkand and Tashkent to Margilan in Uzbekistan. During the journey, the students were able to engage in a mutual exchange with designers from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The Zero Waste-Draping Fashion Design training organized as part of the RUTSIS project in particular served as a basis for getting to know each other, exchanging ideas and finding groups for later collaboration. The training was conceived by Jasmina Benferhat, an Istanbul-based expert in pattern design, and conducted in Dushanbe and Tashkent. RUTSIS project partner Abdullokh Mirzaakhmedov, project coordinator of the Margilan Crafts Development Center, gave an introduction to various stages of ikat production as well as a guided tour of ikat textiles at the Kumtepa Bazaar in Margilan. In Central Asia, the diverse markets are an important trading hub and were therefore visited by the students. During the trip, it was observed that eating together is an important part of daily life, from family gatherings to business dinners and social get-togethers.

Together with eight designers from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, the students developed a collaborative fashion collection. The starting point was the research focus of the RUTSIS project, Central Asian silk ikat fabrics. External experts complemented the project with trainings and guest lectures: trend researcher Ivan Korolev contributed the format “Trend and cultural research - articulating vision and purpose in the design process”. Furthermore, Monica Boța-Moisin, international consultant and founder of the Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative (CIPRI), gave a lecture on “Cultural Sustainability in Fashion with Uzbek and Tajik ikat textiles” with a focus on intellectual property in the context of intercultural cooperations.

The participants formed four teams of four designers respectively. The small teams consisted of one Tajik, one Uzbek, one fashion and one textile design student from Germany each. All teams worked on a different fashion focus. In the end, all four groups combined their work and formed a joint collection. During the journey it was especially valuable for the participants to get to know their cooperation partners on site. At dinners in Dushanbe and Taschkent, the participants got to know each other further. Back in Germany, interpreted digital meetings and conversations followed and the individual teams soon developed their own types of communication via messengers, translated by digital tools. Through surveys, interviews, videos and images, the project participants built personal relationships and exchanged cultural assets. The Quadrologues project investigates how international group work can function despite the language barriers and differentiated design ideas. It is mainly through comparisons of the three different cultures that the students reach an exchange: What makes daily life different, what is similar and what aspects are dissimilar? There was a lot of enthusiasm in each other‘s everyday lives and interests, design ideas and cultural artefacts. How is teaching done in Tashkent, Dushanbe and Halle? What is study and work life like locally?