Damien Ajavon:
Resilient Threads

05. April – 18. May 2025

Free entrance

Damien Ajavon Claiming Space foto Julie Hrncirova 2022 webside

Links

The French-Senegalese textile artist Damien Ajavon has established himself as a significant voice in the Norwegian art scene through their deep exploration of textile heritage and history.

Trøndelag Centre for Contemporary Art is proud to present the exhibition "Resilient Threads" by Damien Ajavon, his first major solo exhibition in Trondheim.

With roots in Senegal and Togo, Ajavon’s practice bridges African and Western cultures as well as the queer community. The artist creates textile artworks with a strong narrative power, exploring themes of identity, heritage, and community.

Ajavon combines storytelling with advanced technical skills in innovative works, employing techniques such as weaving, knitting, knotting, and braiding. They seamlessly navigates between traditional craft traditions and new digital methods. The resulting artworks pay homage to history while challenging the established norms.

In the exhibition “Resilient Threads”, Ajavon presents the new work Guardians of Craft (2025). Created in collaboration with traditional Senegalese Manjak weavers, the installation features six-meter-long woven bands forming a larger installation in the gallery. Manjak weaving is a unique African tradition untouched by colonial appropriations. Traditionally carried out by men in outdoor settings, this technique contrasts with Western craft traditions often associated with women and domestic spaces. Manjak textiles are blessed and used in significant life events, believed to provide protection to those who receive and wear them. This symbolic layer is enriched by Ajavon’s queer perspective, bringing together diverse cultural traditions and challenging normative gender roles associated with weaving and craft.

Through this installation—and the exhibition as a whole—Ajavon highlights the importance of preserving endangered craft traditions while exploring his identity at the intersection of Blackness, queerness, and craft.

«Resilient Threads” is presented at Trøndelag Centre for Contemporary Art as part of MATER - Hannah Ryggen Triennalen 2025.

The exhibition is a tribute to the artist’s foremothers, whom Ajavon regards as protectors, tradition-bearers, and wise voices. This theme aligns with the triennial’s conceptual framework surrounding MATER.

Damien Ajavon

Damien Ajavon (b. 1990) is a textile artist born in France of Senegalese and Togolese descent, currently based in Skien, Norway. Ajavon holds a master’s degree in textiles from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (2023) and a bachelor’s degree in textile construction from the Contemporary Textiles Center in Montreal, Canada (2021). Their work has been exhibited at KODE in Bergen, Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris, Tempio Futuro Perduto in Milan, Kunstnernes Hus, and Nitja, among others. Solo exhibitions include Open Forum in Berlin (2024), A Woolen Odyssey at Kunstnerforbundet (2024), and The Curse of an Unstoppable Appetite / Greenlight Triennale 2024 at Spriten Kunsthall. In 2023, Ajavon received the Høstutstillingen Debutant Award, was acquired by the City of Oslo, and was nominated for the Sparebankstiftelsen DNB Artist Grant.

Damien Ajavon has received support for this exhibition from the Regional Project Fund for Visual Arts via the Norwegian Network of Art Centres.

MATER - Hannah Ryggen Triennial 2025

The Hannah Ryggen Triennial is organized by the Nordenfjeldske Museum of Decorative Arts and Design every three years. In 2025, the theme and guiding thread of the triennial is "MATER (Mother)", focusing on works by contemporary artists who approach materiality from an ecological perspective or actively seek out their foremothers in textile traditions to define and understand their individual or cultural identity.

nkim.no/hrt2025