In collaboration with the TextielMuseum, the City of Tilburg commissioned several artists from the province of Brabant to create a room divider for a specific floor of the new city hall. Five of them developed their work in the TextielLab including Fransje Gimbrère, who created ‘Linum’, an ultra-transparent dividing wall for the third floor.
Designer Fransje Gimbrère is fascinated by the innovative manipulation of material and form using traditional and industrial techniques. She previously created ‘Standing Textiles’, three-dimensional woven structures that, in contrast to their fragile appearance, are extremely strong. For Tilburg’s city hall, she again turned to three-dimensional weaving to create ‘Linum’, an innovative room divider that pushes technical boundaries while fulfilling the requirements of the commission.
Gimbrère had already made her mark in the city hall with ‘Cirrus’, a large-scale 3D woven structure that floats above the meeting tables in the Council Chamber. In that work, the weft and warp threads intersect in three ways. For this new commission, Gimbrère once again explored three-dimensionality.
Whereas both ‘Cirrus’ and ‘Standing Textiles’ are handwoven, this commission offered Gimbrère the opportunity to upscale her manual 3D weaving technique to the industrial loom. With product developer Stef Miero, she developed a fabric consisting of several layers that can hang independently of each other, but which were woven as a single piece. During production, the layers were fixed to a sort of backing, ensuring tension was maintained on the loom and the machine could weave normally. Knowledge of this technique had been acquired during previous projects in the lab and was applied in the development of this textile. After weaving was complete, the backing was removed and the layers were separated into free-hanging elements.
Gimbrère’s starting point was a delicate open weave she had used before. She wanted ‘Linum’ to reflect the same transparency. During the development process, she kept enlarging the openings in the fabric until she found the right balance between fabric and ‘air’. Her aim is to keep increasing the distance between the different layers while still connecting them to each other, thereby creating a truly three-dimensional fabric – a creative adventure for a future project.
Within the colour scheme agreed for the commission, Gimbrère initially wanted the colours in ‘Linum’ to be muted. However, Miero convinced her to include a bright neon shade. Once woven, the bright shade blends into the whole while giving the fabric extra depth, which works beautifully.
Fransje Gimbrère (1993) grew up in Tilburg, the heart of the Dutch textile industry. She graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2017 with ‘Standing Textiles’, which was also developed in the TextielLab. Using experimental and hands-on research, Gimbrère looks for new possibilities and applications of existing materials, crafts and industrial production techniques. She exhibits her autonomous work around the world, creates commissioned and site-specific pieces, and freelances as a creative director, art director, designer, researcher and consultant for clients in a wide variety of fields.
‘Room Divider – City Hall’, City of Tilburg, permanent installation from 2021
‘Secrets of making #2 – Artists and designers in the TextielLab’, TextielMuseum Tilburg, May 2022-June 2023
