Until 26th may

Repairing as a sign of appreciation for the work and resources spent during the production of a garment.
Also with objects from the archive of the Women’s Museum Meran as a historical contribution: mending not out of necessity, but as a virtue, as so-called housework that women are expected to do.

Hudern: Dialectal for rags or cheaply made clothes.

The latter is a problematic product of fast fashion, which has been a disturbing issue for Julia Vontavon, budding seamstress, for a long time.

Her aim is to draw attention to the disastrous working conditions and environmentally harmful processes in textile production. But she also wants to point out how we deal with the garments after purchasing them, especially when the first holes appear or the garment is no longer trendy enough.

The most sustainable garment is the one we already have.

Julia Vontavon’s first exhibition (1 – 8 September 2020 in Klausen) aims to show how clothing can be given a second life by recycling or upcycling them.

In the past patching and mending were part of unpaid female housework, while nowadays it is seen as a sign against the throwaway society and celebrated in the internet under the keyword #visiblemending.

Another way of giving a value to used clothes is upcycling, where the no longer usable or used is turned into something wearable again through a new combination.