Weaving Memory: Mexican Textile Art

A powerful exhibition exploring Indigenous textile traditions from Mexico through photography, woven works and film.

Free entry

Weaving Memory: Mexican Textile Art is a powerful exhibition which brings together photography, objects and film to explore Indigenous textile traditions from Mexico. 

Drawn from the Tilmahtli project by Mexican anthropologist Miguel Ángel Sosme Campos, the exhibition features 24 photographs that focus on the people behind the textiles, alongside 13 original woven works. These textiles - including everyday and ceremonial garments - are crafted by Indigenous women and embody generations of skill, cultural knowledge and lived experience. 

Together, the images and textiles trace the journey of materials from landscape to loom, revealing how fibres and beautiful natural dyes such as indigo and cochineal are transformed through care, patience and deep environmental knowledge. 

The exhibition presents textile making as an active, ongoing practice rather than a finished result. It looks at knowledge passed between generations, where techniques are shared, adapted and sustained over time. These practices are deeply connected to place, community and everyday life, reflecting long‑standing relationships between people and the natural world. 

Displayed alongside selected objects and a documentary film, the works offer insight into how textiles carry memory, identity and cultural continuity. 

Visit Weaving Memory, Mexican Textile Art at Level UG.

Weaving is a traditional textile skill that involves using yarn to create cloths
Indigo skeins Minatitlán, Veracruz, 2025. Weaving Memory presents Mexico’s culture through Miguel Soseme’s Tilmahtli project, showcasing Indigenous knowledge, weaving, and creative practices. Spinning is one of the processes through which wool fibres are transformed into threads. For this, a wooden spindle called a ‘malacate’ is used, which, through rotational movement, turns the wool locks into strands of varying thicknesses Image: Miguel Soseme
© Miguel Soseme
Two sheep rest and stand on a grassy hillside among trees and agave plants in Veracruz, Mexico.
The livestock Tlaquilpa, Veracruz, 2018. Weaving Memory presents Mexico’s culture through Miguel Soseme’s Tilmahtli project, showcasing Indigenous knowledge, weaving, and creative practices. Sheep’s wool is one of the most valued natural fibres in the indigenous textile tradition of the Zongolica Sierra, Veracruz. Image: Miguel Soseme
© Miguel Soseme
Dried cochineal in a wooden bowl beside red wool yarn balls on purple-dyed fabric, Veracruz, Mexico
Cochineal Tlaquilpa, Veracruz, 2023. Weaving Memory presents Mexico’s culture through Miguel Soseme’s Tilmahtli project, showcasing Indigenous knowledge, weaving, and creative practices. Image: Miguel Soseme
© Miguel Soseme
Close-up of hands weaving dark yarn through a traditional wooden wool loom with multicoloured thread
Wool loom dyed with cochineal and indigo, Tlaquilpa, Veracruz, 2015. Weaving Memory presents Mexico’s culture through Miguel Soseme’s Tilmahtli project, showcasing Indigenous knowledge, weaving, and creative practices. Despite their relative simplicity, looms enable the creation of intricate fabrics characterised by colour and geometric patterns. Image: Miguel Soseme
© Miguel Soseme
Three handwoven shawls in purple, blue, and yellow hanging side by side, Tlaquilpa, Veracruz.
Shawls of Aunty Carmen Tentzohua, Tlaquilpa, Veracruz, 2020. Weaving Memory presents Mexico’s culture through Miguel Soseme’s Tilmahtli project, showcasing Indigenous knowledge, weaving, and creative practices. Image: Miguel Soseme
© Miguel Soseme

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