Pierre Antoine Vettorello

The work of Pierre Antoine Vettorello focuses on using textile design and clothes as a foundation for narrative. He makes sculptural and statement silhouettes that represent militancy and poetry. Some are inspired by military technologies, ordinary materials, West African textiles and materials, and methods learned during tours and workshops. As a designer, he seeks to incorporate hand-made processes and discarded elements into the creation of clothes and forms in order to center them in his work. As a human being and a scholar, he is challenging our personal relationship with our sartorial past, as well as how we manufacture mythologies about 'designers' in Western nations, repeating colonial practices. He identifies how we view and get inspiration from the African continent, as well as how we interact with it.

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Vettorello received the ASVOF Diane Pernet award in 2010 and Arise Award in 2011.

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He is Afropean, grew up in Bordeaux, France and now works and lives in Brussels (Belgium). He has an MA from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, fashion department and an MA in Artistic Research from Sint Lucas School of Arts. He is currently a Ph.D. research fellow at the University of Antwerp and Sint Lucas Antwerp School of Arts.

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Residency in Saint-Louis, Sénégal working on retracing genealogies of local fashion designers and editing replicas.

https://villandar.ifs.sn

January - March 2022

Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris

Vettorello worked in situ and presented his research at the Cité des Arts in the form of an exhibition titled "Black Yarns, Goutte d'Or."

https://www.citedesartsparis.net/en/exposition-fils-noirs-goutte-dor-pierre-antoine-vettorello

Vettorello conducted a research on decolonial perspectives in textile and fashion, working on revealing alternative narratives and genealogies comprised and hidden in the Western history of fashion.

https://www.aair.be/en/residenten/pierre-antoine-vettorello/

Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Fashion dpt., Antwerp

Since January 2022

Istituto Marangoni Paris.

Teaching master's students (Designer Thinking & Neo-Craftmanship) and tutor.

(English)

Oxbridge Academic Programs, Paris.

Teacher of fashion design, history of fashion and fashion criticism to grades 9-12 major and minor programs. Focus on Parisian Fashion.

(English)

Spring 2021

Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels.

Teacher of fashion and textile design applications, project monitoring at the Executive Masters in Knitting Design program.

(French)

( 04 )

Lectures

May 2022

Dakar Design Hub, Dakar.

Lecture and workshop about archival iconography and historiography.

(French)

October 2022

Sint Lucas School of Arts, Antwerpen.

Lecture and workshop about archival, ecopoetics and fashion.

(English)

Royal Academy of Fine Arts, fashion dept., Antwerp

Rethinking Design: fashion, decolonization, and ecopoetic pathways to hidden narratives. Guest lecturer for bachelor's degree students.

(English)

December 2022

LUCA / school of arts, Ghent.

Rethinking Design: fashion, decolonization, and ecopoetic pathways to hidden narratives. Public lecture

(English)

Vettorello, Pierre-Antoine (2021) A conversation with Diana Bamimeke and Rima Hamid, Advanced Master of Research in Art and Design, special issue of TYPP. Antwerp: Yellow Press, pp. 35-42.

https://www.adma.be/typp

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October 2022

The Curation of African Textiles in Belgian Fashion Museums from a Diasporic Viewpoint

Vettorello, Pierre-Antoine & Okemwa, Nyanchama (2022) The Curation of African Textiles in Belgian Fashion Museums from a Diasporic Viewpoint, TYPP#8 Blind Spot. Antwerp: Yellow Press, pp. I-XVI.

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