For the year 2019, the organization celebrated the leap to Europe, with Spain (Madrid) hosting the VIII International Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art WTA, which took place from September 17 to November 3, 2019.
The VIII International Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art WTA, titled “Sustainable City,” focused on those artists who chose to express themselves through fibers and weaves, redefining with their work the very concept of “textile art,” limiting it and making it explode in its multiple connotations of meaning.
Crossing borders and combining disciplines, the artists who participated in the VIII International Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art WTA started from fibers to merge with new technologies and ventured into different lines of research, hybridizing searches and questioning categories but maintaining the textile as an element integrator. concept. They used the concept “Sustainable City” as the main theme.
The VIII International Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art WTA was organized by the World Organization of Textile Art (WTA), together with the association ID Arte, Innovation and Development of Art, idarte.org, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, State Museums of Spain, City of Madrid, Complutense University of Madrid UCM, Embassies of Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.
The General Management was headed by María Ortega.
- SALON: Large Outdoor Format; Large Interior Format; Small Format; Photography with Textile Image; Video art.
- JURY: Velta Raudzepa (Latvia). Marta Kowalewska (Poland). Tania Pardo (Spain). Kinor Jiang (Hong Kong). Keiko Kawashima (Japón). Maribel Doménech (España). Silvia Fedorova (Bratistava). Andrea Fischer (Chile). Sofía Rodríguez Bernis(España). Eva Sobán (Brasil). María José Magaña (España). Carmen Dalmau (España). Clara Garavelli (Argentina). Susana Blas (España). Marisol Salanova (España).
- PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: 161
- PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES: 42 Países
- GUEST ARTISTS: 37
- TOTAL VISITORS: 180.000
- SIDE EVENTS: Museo de Artes Decorativas, Casa do Brasil, Casa de México, Fundación Antonio Berni, Facultad de Bellas Artes (UCM), Cesta República, Instituto Iberoamericano Finlandia, Mercado de San Antón y Central del Diseño
- COLLABORATORS: Casa de Brasil, Casa de México, Fundación Antonio Berni, Fundación ONCE, Central del Diseño, Galería Cesta Republica, Instituto Iberoamericano de Finlandia
- SPONSORS: Ministerio de Cultura, State Museums, Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Universidad Complutense de Madrid UCM, World Textile Art e ID arte EMBASSIES: Argentina, France, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto de la República Argentina, Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores de México, Ministerio de Educación y Cultura de Uruguay