10. Workshops — ALEJANDRA RUIZ SUAREZ

WORKSHOPS

University courses and other courses

Since 2015

My experience as an educator with institutions of both higher education and non-formal education has been linked to the development of the textile area from creative and sustainable aspects. At the Pascual Bravo University (Medellin, Colombia), for the students of Fashion Design, I taught between 2015 and 2018 the Design and creativity II, Sustainability, Customization, Digital Illustration and 3D Modeling courses. Among the most important achievements of these classes, I highlight having participated as a course in the Fashion Revolution Week through calls to action to the university community regarding the conscious consumption of fashion against climate change. I also highlight in the Customization and Sustainability courses, raising awareness and bringing a different approach to fashion production from upcycling, circular fashion and alternative sources of material supply.

During 2017 and 2018 I held Textile Experimentation courses as part of the cultural extension program of the Museum of the University of Antioquia, and the Museum of Modern Art of Medellín; benefitting the communities of the University, the museum’s public, and a group of women entrepreneurs under the Cultural Productivity program of the Museum of Modern Art of Medellin.

Besides teaching in formal academic contexts such as universities and museums, I have also collaborated with collectives and designers from various parts of the world:

In 2017 and 2018, I collaborated with the artist Leandra Plaza Santa (Cali, 1984) in "Patronaje sin patrón" (Pattern making without pat-terns), a series of workshops that propose an approach to clothing addressing historical functions of the garments and reviewing the roles that determine their use. Each session dealt with different types of clothing and participants were invited to develop garments based on second-hand clothes and intuitive pattern-making methods. The sessions were held in different cultural spaces such as La Tertulia Museum in Cali, Lugar a Dudas artistic residence in Cali, and UnLoquer Hacker Space artistic residence in Medellin.

In 2016, I facilitated with Angélica Salazar (representative of Fashion Revolution Colombia), Ingrid Cordero (Frau Lamb, Costa Rica) and SieteCuatroSiete (Colombia) "Craftivism in fashion" workshop. Through this workshop we encouraged participants to generate actions that reflect on clothing consumption and its ecosystem impacts.

In 2016, I collaborated with the Argentine collective 12NA in the development of the "Monstruologia; textile activism" workshop in which through game and the reflection on our role as creators, the participants were led to collaboratively develop a textile monster that left a sustainability message to the visitors of the Medellin Design Week festival.

In 2019, I travelled facilitating the workshop REDRESS, of my creation, which consisted on sharing strategies for textiles upcycling and repurposing. I facilitated it in Residencia Wabisabi (Tigre, Argentina), and in Casa Azul del Arte in Punta Arenas, Chile.