Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is the guest at the 8th edition of Contextile – Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art, in Guimarães, which runs until November 29 under the theme "By a Thread/By a Thread," conveying the message that the planet is "hanging by a thread." The Centro Internacional das Artes José de Guimarães (CIAJG) hosts the exhibition "Fabrication," which includes more than 400 children's backpacks, two hundred life jackets, and military uniforms transformed into bed linens, symbolic representations of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, and of the refugee crisis.
Ai Weiwei, born in 1957 in Beijing, has developed productions focused on climate issues, pollution, recycling, and reuse, but also on social themes such as war and the migration crisis. The artist used military uniforms from Ukraine, a country he visited in 2025, which were destroyed and transformed into recycled thread, producing fabric with the iconic symbol of the middle finger raised, with the message of transforming war materials into something useful. This collaboration featured the textile company Lameirinho, from Guimarães.
At the CIAJG there are also other works, such as a military tent embroidered with colorful buttons and a textile piece with the word "FUCK." Outside, there are the public interventions "Camouflage," a camouflage net spanning dozens of meters, and "Net," in the Couros area, classified as UNESCO Heritage. The biennial coincides with Guimarães' title as European Green Capital 2026, reinforcing the connection to sustainability and environmental degradation themes.
Contextile also includes the international exhibition at the Palácio Vila Flor, with 54 works by 51 artists from 27 countries, selected from 1,604 artists from 81 countries who submitted 2,036 works. The event also encompasses artistic residencies, performances, workshops, and the Textile Talks cycle, expecting to attract many visitors, with Portuguese being the most frequent visitors, but with a growing presence of foreigners, especially Spanish.
