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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.

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

He is Afropean, 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. He is currently completing a Ph.D. research fellow at the University of Antwerp and Sint Lucas Antwerp School of Arts.

Awards & Fellowships

( 01 )

Latest Work

May 2022

Villa Ndar, Institut Français du Sénégal, Saint-Louis

January - March 2022

Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris

January - March 2021

AAIR - Artist in Residence, Antwerp

Education

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Education

2021-2025

University of Antwerp (ARIA) & KdG Sint Lucas School of Arts, Antwerp

Ph.D. Research Fellow (candidate)

2020

KdG 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

Masters & Bachelor in Fashion Design.

2005

ENSAAMA Olivier de Serres, Paris

Certification in Textile Design.

Teaching

( 03 )

Teaching

Since January 2022

Istituto Marangoni Paris.

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

(English)

Since 2015

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 - December 2022

Dakar Design Hub, Dakar.

Lecture and workshop about archival iconography and historiography.

Sint Lucas School of Arts, Antwerpen.

Lecture and workshop about archival, ecopoetics and fashion.

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.

LUCA / school of arts, Ghent.

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

February - May  2023

LUCA / school of arts, Brussels.

Fiction as a lens on decoloniality and fashion

Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule
University of Art and Design, Halle.

Lecture on my Ph.D. research "Black Yarns".

Publication

April 2021

( 05 )

Publications

A conversation with Diana Bamimeke and Rima Hamid - Black Pride Ireland

Vettorello, P-A. (2021) A conversation with Diana Bamimeke and Rima Hamid. TYPP Special Issue. Antwerp: Yellow Press, pp. 35-42.

https://www.adma.be/typp

October 2022

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

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.

March 2023

Decolonial Methods for Artists and Researchers from the Diasporas. Damien Ajavon: Archiving the Invisible

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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