M2 Tapestry – Textile arts
Run by the Textile Design section of the ESA Académie des Beaux-Arts de Tournai, the specialised Master in Tapestry – Textile arts gives students the opportunity to learn a traditional craft while looking towards contemporary artistic research. Heir to a long tapestry-weaving tradition and a living heritage, the city of Tournai has recently become home to this programme, unique in Wallonia.
Spread over the two years of the second cycle, it provides technical training in Master 1 and leads to an artistic and personal project in Master 2.
The teaching of high-warp tapestry – a form of interlacing in which warp threads are stretched vertically and weft threads pass between them – is at the heart of the programme. From preparing the warp to setting up the loom, students learn a set of weaving gestures and techniques through a series of precise teaching exercises organised in modules. Combined with courses in art history and the history of tapestry in particular, this leads students to question, through work with soft materials, their relationship to tools, time and space.
As they grow more independent, students are able to develop and technically design their artistic and personal project, while continuing to build the intellectual and reflective dimension of their work and sharpening their critical eye. At the end of the programme, they write a thesis summing up their artistic and theoretical research.
Readings, visits and meetings with artists and cultural players punctuate the two years of the programme. Through external work placements, students experience the professional world: assisting visual artists or tapestry weavers, working in studios or manufactories – the choices open to them are many.
The specialised Master in Tapestry – Textile arts aims to pass on and preserve an exceptional craft, recognised in spring 2024 as an emblematic element of the intangible cultural heritage of the French Community of Belgium, while encouraging experimentation and the development of distinctive artistic approaches.