ShareKUWAIT: The Peruvian Embassy in Kuwait, in collaboration with the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL) and Al Sadu House, launched the Peruvian Textile Exhibition and Workshop on Sunday. Running until July 11, this event marks the first initiative following the bilateral cultural agreement signed between Kuwait and Peru in Nov 2023. In his opening speech, Ambassador of Peru to Kuwait, Carlos Velasco, expressed gratitude to everyone involved in bringing this project to light. He highlighted the event’s importance in uniting weavers from Kuwait and Peru, encouraging shared creative discussions and enriching experiences.
The Peruvian master weavers, who traveled all the way from Cosco, will share their ancestral knowledge, experiences and techniques with their Kuwaiti counterparts in alpaca handweaving, spinning telar and vegetable dyeing. Similarly, he stressed the need for the expertise of Kuwaiti weavers to gain international recognition. We look forward to seeing the experience of Kuwaiti weavers reciprocated and reproduced in Peru in the near future, he remarked. We hope this intercultural activity will be the steppingstone for future cooperation in the years to come.
Speaking to Kuwait Times, the ambassador unveiled plans for future cultural cooperation with Kuwait, including a folk music event and a contemporary art exhibition scheduled for Nov 2024. Mohammad Al-Jassar, Secretary General of the NCCAL, told Kuwait Times this event is part of the NCCAL’s summer festival.
The most interesting aspect is that cultural awareness is not brought solely through lectures, but also through hands-on experiences, learning about the daily activities of another culture’s textile craftsmanship, he said. Regarding the similarities between Sadu and Peruvian textiles, Jassar noted that while the patterns differ, both share the same concept and spirit. In both traditions, the elements of textile art are derived from the natural environments they interact with daily.
