The VI Biennial 2011 had the participation of artists from more than 65 countries. The event was held in 3 cities: Mexico City, Oaxaca and Xalapa.

For fifteen days in May of 2011, the opening events of the VI INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY TEXTILE ART WTA – Aire took place, which were held in three Mexican cities. The Coordination of the VI WTA Biennial in Mexico proposed a relevant topic to support textile participations – the AIR of our planet:

Through art, project an ecological and critical awareness on the current problems of this vital element, in all its ramifications and evocations, linking textile arts to real life issues that concern us all. Air is a primordial and almost intangible element that enters our lungs, each organ of our body, each organism, each cell. It envelops and nourishes our planet, its seas and lands, mountains and abysses, rocks, vegetation and every living being.

Thus, the VI WTA Biennial launched 6 different international calls for 6 textile art salons designed specifically for this Biennial, each with a specific format and its own concept. It also presented two Guest Artist Exhibitions and one Honored Artist Exhibition.

The program was enriched with ten parallel exhibitions in Xalapa, eleven in Mexico City and three in Oaxaca, which were added to the framework of the Biennial. They also held workshops in Mexico City and Oaxaca, conferences and presentations.

In Xalapa, the International Congress Considerations on Textiles and Society, a recapitulation, was held in parallel. In total, 320 works were exhibited in the rooms of the 6th Biennial, 60 in the Large Format Room, 80 in the Small Format Room, 40 in the Object Art Room, 50 in the Recycling Room, 12 T and 72 Redes Room) works whose creators come from 52 nationalities.

Five of the salons had their own international jury; At the same time, the Collaborative Textile Art Salon-Networks was opened to all groups without social barriers, ages, conditions.

The Olga de Amaral Prize, established in 2006, was awarded to Master Androna Linartas for her outstanding career in the textile field. And as something very special, at the Xalapa Headquarters – Universidad Veracruzana, the Sheila Hicks Award for Pioneering Work in Textiles was presented to the Ix’Putalama World Cotton House of Takilhsukut, located in the heart of Totonacapam, State of Veracruz, for the unusual fact of reconstructing the cosmology of his people through this fiber.

The VI WTA-Aire Biennial published three catalogues, one per venue, of the exhibitions in its axis. Textile, being something that has been known since it came into the world, has the power to bind every human being. Textile has the power to summon and gather. It has the power to represent the image of a culture. It builds bridges and similarities with society while reflecting the multifaceted bond between living beings and the air. Like the feathered serpent that inhabits the historical airs of Mesoamerica, the 6th WTA Biennial had a winding path through Mexico, covering three regions.

The VI Biennial was held in multiple museums and cultural centers in the country simultaneously.