Areas of interest: Artistic Research, Decolonial Studies, Critical Fashion Studies, Diaspora Studies, Curatorial Studies, Africana Studies.
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Pierre-Antoine Vettorello (he/him) is a practice-led researcher at the Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (ARIA), he works with textile, photo archives, diasporic testimonies and objects. He crafts installations, sculptures and design prints and researches Senegalse Women afro-diasporic resistance between 1939 and 1966 in Paris, through photo archives and textiles. He questions how humans transform and adorn themselves moving in colonial and postcolonial spaces.
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Afropean, he grew up in Bordeaux and works and lives in Brussels. 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.
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Vettorello received the ASVOF Diane Pernet award in 2010 and Arise Award in 2011.
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He currently serves as:
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PhD research fellow at University of Antwerp and Sint Lucas School of Arts with his thesis 'Black Yarns'.
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Action researcher over transmission of craftsmanship in Belgium via diasporic networks, 'Crafting Futures' University of Antwerp's project, led by Director of the interdisciplinary Urban Studies Institute and History professor, Dr. Bert de Munck.
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Tutor for graduate students at Istituto Marangoni in Paris
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Visiting Doctoral Student at Wolfson college, University of Oxford (Michaelmas term 2025-2026)
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( 01 )
Latest Art Work
Le Manège, Institut Français du Sénégal, Dakar
'La Résistance de Diouana' dans Drianké, l'archétype de la femme sénégalaise, commissariat d'exposition par Ken Aïcha Sy, Dakar, SN, March till May 2025 (link)
SuperOtium, Artist in Residence, Naples
Villa Ndar, Institut Français du Sénégal, Saint-Louis
Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris
( 02 )
Education
2021-2025
University of Antwerp, Antwerp Research Institute for the arts (ARIA), Sint Lucas School of Arts, Antwerp
Ph.D. in Arts (candidate)
2020
Sint Lucas School of Arts, Antwerp
Advanced Masters in Artistic Research within a Social & Political Context.
2010
Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Fashion dpt., Antwerp
Bachelor & Masters of Arts
2005
ENSAAMA Olivier de Serres, Paris
Certification in Textile Design.
( 03 )
Teaching
From September 2023 until June 2024
Spring 2021
Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Brussels.
Research methodology, work in-progress at the Executive Masters in Knitting Design program.
(French)
Since January 2022
Istituto Marangoni, Paris.
Art Instructor - Fashion Design and Academic Writing. Techniques for writing dissertation papers.
(English)
Since 2015
Oxbridge Academic Programs, Paris.
Summer Program Educator - History of Fashion. Hands-on workshops, museum visits, guest speakers sessions
(English)
( 04 )
Lectures & Paper Presentations
From September 2021 until fall 2025:
- Museum Africa. Fashion in Museum Symposium. Invited by curators Alison Moloney, Wanda Lephoto and Erica de Greef. Forthcoming Sept. 2025. Johannesburg, ZA.
- Université de Montréal. Guest Lecture "Black Yarns" during the seminar "Decolonial Museologies" in Art History and Museum Studies Postgraduate course, invited by Prof. Abigail E. Celis. Montréal, CA
- University of Aberdeen. Elphinstone Institute for Ethnology, Folklore, and Ethnomusicology. SIEF Congress. "Beyond Craft Cyborgs: Unraveling the Interplay of Analog and Digital in Textile Art" Part of the panel: Transmitting the Unwritten – Unwriting the Transmission: Safeguarding the Embodied Knowledge/Practice of Craftership in a Digitising World. Aberdeen, UK (link)
- CNRS / Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art (INHA). "Fils Noirs. Cartographier les archives coloniales et résistances afro-diasporiques à Paris (1931-1966)" (seminar presentation) during the seminar Artisanats et arts décoratifs dans un contexte global, XIXe-XXIe siècles curated by Aurélie Petiot. Paris, FR (link)
- University of Gothenburg. "Black Yarns: Fashioning Afrodiasporic Resistance in Paris (1939-1966) in "Fabulation" (workshop) PARSE Journal Issue: Fabulation. Editors Ram Krishna Rahman and Jyoti Mistry. Göteborg, SE (Forthcoming)
- Parsons School of Design, The New School, Paris. "Black Yarns: Unveiling New Perspectives Through Press Archives, Family Photography, and a Decolonial Lens. Guest lecture during Melody Thomas' course over Fashion and National Identity. Paris, FR
- Université Paris 1 La Sorbonne, Art et Archéologie.
"L'Habit Immuable: Cartographier les Archives Coloniales et Résistances Afro-Diasporiques à Paris (1931-1966) in "Par-delà les archives violentes". Lecture during Prof. Lotte Arndt's course over Art et Globalisation. Paris, FR
-Hampshire College, "Black Yarns: On Seeing / Researching / Dreaming a Photograph of Khady Diop in Paris.", lecture during Prof. Jennifer Bajorek's course on photography, Amherst, MA, USA
-Universität Bern, "Black Yarns: Unveiling New Perspectives Through Press Archives, Family Photography, and a Decolonial Lens (lecture) in Shadow Archives: Unveiling Global Entanglements in Visual Records, Bern, CH
- Universität Bayreuth, "Estranged Dolls: Exploring Connections and Disconnections Through Objects. A Study of the Parisian Senegalese Diaspora and the Musée du Quai Branly" in Reconfigurations in Africa and in African Studies, Biannual conference of the Association for African Studies in Germany e.V. (VAD), September-October 2024, Bayreuth, DE (link)
- University of Galway, "Unveiling New Perspectives Through Press Archives, News, Photography, and a Decolonial Lens. Lecture during Prof. Don Duncan's course (Arts, Literature & Media), Galway, IE
- Sint Lucas Antwerpen, 'Disrupt! Imagine Fashion in the Post-Museum, the Archive and Beyond' (chair and lecturer), Antwerp, BE
- Universität der Künste, De-Fashioning Education conference (paper presentation), Berlin, DE (link)
- Institut Français de la Mode (IFM), Executive MBA Global Fashion Management (lecture), Paris, FR
- IFM Paris, IFM alumni association (lecture), Faverolles, FR
- Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule University of Art and Design, Master in fashion design (lecture), Halle, DE
- Trinity College Dublin, Text & Techne online symposium (paper presentation), IE (Link)
- ​LUCA / school of arts, Masters (lecture), Brussels, BE
- Dakar Design Hub, Master Class (workshop), Popenguine, SN
( 05 )
Publications
- Vettorello, P.-A. (2026) ‘Black Yarns’ in Fabulation. Krishna Rahman and Jyoti Mistry (eds.) Göteborg: Parse Journal. Göteborg University Faculty of Fine, Applied, and Performing Arts. (In preparation)
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- Vettorello, P-A. (2025) 'Dressing for Defiance: From Senegal to Diasporic Colonial Paris with Khady Diop' in The Poetics of Fabric: Intermedial Craft in Poetry and Textiles (ed. Adele Bardazzi). London: Bloomsbury Publishing
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- Vettorello, P.-A. (2025) 'Strolling Through the Eccentric Space: Unveiling the Potential Photo-History of Khady Diop
in La Goutte d’Or' in Grounds #1. Antwerp: Grounds
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- Vettorello, P.-A. (Ed.). (2025). On Colonial Violence in Fashion Museums, The Yarn Zine #2. Antwerp: Black Yarns Publishings. (link)
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- Vettorello, P.-A. (2024). 'Uniqueness in Fashon - Disrupting Modernity, Igniting Indigenous Romanticism' in Scott, K., Curtis, B., Pajaczkowska, C. (eds.) The Future of Fashion Education: Speculation, Experience and Collaboration. Abingdon: Routledge (link)​
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- Vettorello, P.-A. (Ed.). (2023). On Colonial Violence in Fashion Schools, The Yarn Zine #1. Antwerp: Black Yarns Publishings. (link)
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- Vettorello, P.-A. (2023). ‘Decolonial Methods for Artists and Researchers from the Diasporas. Damien Ajavon: Archiving the Invisible | Méthodes Décoloniales Pour Artistes et Chercheurs des Diasporas. Damien Ajavon : Archiver L’Invisible’, Decoloniality & Fashion RCDF e-zine, (2), pp. 74-77. (link)
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- Okemwa, N. & Vettorello, P.-A. (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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- Vettorello, P.-A. (2021). A conversation with Diana Bamimeke and Rima Hamid. TYPP Special Issue. Antwerp: Yellow Press, pp. 35-42.
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