Opening Presentation Bindweefsel Gen 2025 - Terra Terra

Bindweefsel is a special art project about connection, cultural roots and passing on what matters to you. Sixteen women from Tilburg, each with a different cultural background, worked together with artist Sandim Mendes to create a large, walk-in textile artwork. In Terra Terra, personal stories, dreams and traditions come together through textile. The work invites visitors to meet, listen and reflect on where they come from and what they wish to pass on to the next generation.

Photo by Kevita Junior i.o.v. TextielMuseum.

Opening

The TextielMuseum and ContourdeTwern warmly invite you to the opening of Bindweefsel on Saturday 17 January 2026, from 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm, at Wijkcentrum De Poorten.

During the opening, Terra Terra can be seen and experienced in the central space of the community centre. We will provide drinks and light refreshments, and several participants will share their experiences of the project. You are very welcome to join us.

After the opening, the artwork will remain on display at Wijkcentrum De Poorten until Carnival. It will then travel to several other community centres across Tilburg. More information about the locations will follow soon.

About Bindweefsel

Bindweefsel is a collaboration between the TextielMuseum and ContourdeTwern. The TextielMuseum is a dynamic working museum for textile art, design and heritage. ContourdeTwern is a social welfare organisation in Tilburg that connects people and neighbourhoods and supports individuals in addressing everyday questions and challenges. In Bindweefsel, the art of connection and connection through art come together.

Photo by Kevita Junior i.o.v. TextielMuseum.

About the exhibition

This exhibition presents the outcome of Bindweefsel, a participatory project in which sixteen women from Tilburg with diverse cultural backgrounds worked with textile. In co-creation with artist Sandim Mendes, they created Terra Terra, an artwork that can be viewed and entered. The creativity and textile skills of this remarkable group of women are central to the exhibition.

The participants worked in the TextielLab, the professional workshop of the TextielMuseum. In the passementerie department, they learned various techniques, including cord twisting, braiding and band weaving. For this artwork, Sandim Mendes asked them the question: “What would you like to pass on to the next generation from your own culture and traditions?” Working in pairs, the Bindweefsel participants created textile collages in response to this question.

At the heart of the installation hang ‘cassava roots’, made using passementerie techniques. These roots symbolise Mendes’ own heritage in Cape Verde, where cassava is an important part of the local cuisine. The title Terra Terra is a Cape Verdean expression used to describe something that truly comes from the land — deeply rooted in culture and origin.

Visitors are invited to step inside the installation and engage in conversation about their own roots and the message they wish to pass on to the next generation.

Where and when to visit

• January – April 2026: touring three community centres in Tilburg
• From Saturday 26 September 2026: on display at the TextielMuseum
• After this, Terra Terra will become part of the TextielMuseum collection

Stories from several participants have been recorded by Stadsmuseum Tilburg and can be found at www.geheugenvantilburg.nl.

Would you like to follow the Bindweefsel participants on their textile journeys? Follow them on Instagram: @bindweefsel.group.

Photo by Kevita Junior i.o.v. TextielMuseum.

With thanks to

This project has been realised with the support of:
Fonds voor Cultuurparticipatie, STEM Fund, Stichting Jacques de Leeuw, Boudewijn van Gorp Foundation for Charitable Causes, Stadsmuseum Tilburg, Province of North Brabant, Municipality of Tilburg, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), and the VriendenLoterij.