Pascale Gatzen speaks with with Lidewij Edelkoort and Philip Fimmano about The Linen Project during this World Hope Forum webinar, an open online event coinciding with the launch of the educational programme led by the World Hope Forum initiators in partnership with Polimoda, Florence. As co-initiator of The Linen Project, Pascale shares insight into the initiative’s various activities, in particular; embracing traditional agricultural processes, working in community with nature, the possibilities of fibre outcomes and the diverse potential of a local linen value chain.  

‘Arts and Crafts practitioners in the 19th century faced similar scepticism about their interest in the pre-industrial past, which contemporaries perceived as anti-modern or backward-looking. In the eyes of the Arts and Crafts reformers tradition was never seen as something conservative, but as a living, ever-evolving process that held vast scope for imagining a better future. The same goes for The Linen Project’s back to the roots-approach to flax and linen production.’
– World Hope Forum

Presentation held in English. This World Hope Forum edition, hosted in Florence with Polimoda Master in Textiles From Farm to Fabric to Fashion, took place online on February 5 2022. 

The video cover image below shows weaving to form for a garment using linen fibres grown, harvested, hand-spun and natural-dyed by the collective makers, a group of Linen Stewards 2020. Photo courtesy of Pascale Gatzen.