Rose Ekwé: Making weaving sustainable and innovative

These yarns are then used to weave exceptional, surprising and virtuous textiles for interior design projects. In 2022, she moved to JAD, where she continues her creative process and research into natural fiber weaving, notably through collaborations with other designers such as cabinetmaker Albane Salmon / Atelier Sauvage. 

From October to November 2023, Rose Ekwé is taking up a residency in Cameroon with visual artist Shivay la Multiple, whom she met during her training, to study the water hyacinth and the possibilities of valorizing this invasive plant in the world of textiles. In this interview, she looks back on this residency experience, and shares her thoughts on her practice, marked by experimentation, research into materials and a commitment to transmission and sustainability in creation. 

As part of your research into materials and natural fiber weaving, you spent a month and a half in Cameroon. What were the aims of this residency and what prospects did it open up for you?

It was the centrality of water to my practice and to Shivay la Multiple's artistic imagination that first brought us together. I'm exploring the possibilities of using natural fibers in weaving, in particular from invasive plants and algae that thrive in aquatic environments. Through this approach, I aim to enhance the value of invasive plants perceived as problematic, turning them into a raw material that can be sublimated through weaving. For her part, Shivay la Multiple is developing a reflection on the river as a political, economic, poetic and spiritual entity. This research is carried out in a variety of media, from performance and installation to video and the use of beading techniques and calabash skills.

Water, and in particular Cameroon's Fiko and Wouri rivers, was at the heart of this residency, made possible thanks to financial support from theInstitut Français and the City of Paris. These rivers have recently been invaded by the water hyacinth, leading to environmental, economic and cultural upheavals, since for the Sawa people of this Littoral region - literally "people of water" - the river is of fundamental symbolic and cultural importance. 

During this residency, our aim was to understand the transformation of these rivers, and its impact on local life, from fishing difficulties and travel restrictions to the upheaval of ecosystems and imaginations. We therefore devoted a large part of our time to observation and exchanges with local players. We met the authorities of the coastal region, village chiefs, mayors, artists, as well as the inhabitants of Ndoulou-Badou, the village where we were based, which is also the village where my father comes from. These many discussions enabled us to better understand their relationship with the river and the political implications of this invasion, but also to gather their ideas and points of view on our project to promote the water hyacinth, in a co-construction approach with the inhabitants and local players.

At the same time, we each collected material: in the form of notes and videos, and in the form of samples, so that we could carry out initial weaving experiments with water hyacinth. Then, together, we created the first samples of textile pieces combining weaving motifs with those of beading, integrating the hyacinth from root to stem.

This residency enabled us to make contact with the terrain and its challenges, as well as with the material: a first step for this socially useful, ecological and creative project. Now it's a question of maturing all these exchanges to better plan the next step. Finally, if we ever want to integrate water hyacinth into the materials we work with, in the same way as my gelofils®, it is essential that we deepen our research into hyacinth as a raw material for weaving and objects: its resistance over time, its properties, the evolution of its color and texture over time, and so on.

Your practice is very much centered on materials research, as evidenced by the work you are carrying out as part of this residency. How has this approach developed over the course of your career?

My creative approach has always been based on transforming materials into textiles. I'm fascinated by the infinite possibilities offered by this field of experimentation: anything can become a textile. As part of my commitment to the environment, I'm looking to develop yarns made from bio-sourced and compostable materials. This is how I came to create Gelofils® as part of my diploma project: yarns made from seaweed using a process that started out very empirical - the first experiments were carried out in my kitchen - and gradually became more formalized through collaboration with engineers. Since then, I have continued to perfect these gelofils®, notably through technical laboratory studies aimed at stabilizing the formulation and testing the properties of this material, while opening up my research to other materials, such as sea straws, wood or water hyacinth.

Then came my encounter with weaving. At first, the complexity of this technique seemed like a constraint, but it gradually turned out to be an incredible creative lever. With weaving, the motif is both aesthetic and structural: technique, materials and aesthetics interact. Each time a new material is used, the structure has to be readapted, and the aesthetic reinvented. This technique offers infinite possibilities for diverting materials, while creating ever more varied patterns and textures. And then there's the very strong bond with the material, since we're in direct interaction with the fabric being made.

These creations, which combine technical and aesthetic reflection, are then transformed into decorative pieces in the form of wall panels, room dividers, cladding or screens.  

Today, you also devote part of your activity to the transfer of your business.

For several months now, I've been giving workshops to private individuals, and I really enjoy these moments of exchange and transmission. They also enable me to raise public awareness of this technique, which in the end is relatively unknown. In conjunction with JAD, I also take part in a PACTE (Projet Artistique et Culturel en Territoire Éducatif ) artistic and cultural education program for students at Collège Joliot Curie in Bagneux. I also take part in the Chemin des Arts program for the "savoir-faire ensemble" course offered by JAD in partnership with La Source Rodin. With these students, we'll be looking at what textiles are, what constitutes a raw material and its properties, as well as the weaving technique and the protocol to be established and followed when practicing this technique. These are all questions that permeate my work and that I'm keen to share with young people today. 

Interview by Brune Schlosser

In charge of cultural and heritage projects at INMA and INMA correspondent at JAD