Thread Cultural Centre

Description

Thread is a cultural center and artist's residency program in Sinthian, a remote village in eastern Senegal near the Gambia River and the border with Mali. In close collaboration with Le Korsa, it enables artists from around the world to advance their work in an exceptional setting, and serves as platform for people from throughout the Tambacounda region to share their own stories with a wide audience that extends internationally.Thread's imaginative building by Toshiko Mori has a remarkable impact. Besides being an uplifting space in which artists work on their own projects, it serves the local people as a base for agricultural programs, language and health classes, markets, parties, music performances, and sports. At the same time, it helps the local population in practical ways; the roof collects and retains rainwater, creating a viable source for 40% of the village's domestic water needs, and it even provides electrical outlets where villagers charge their cellphones and a small library that attracts lots of visitors. Thread was designed to be a flexible and evolving public space, and the local population uses it in a variety of ways: it has become home to music and dance festivals, soccer tournaments, daily study halls, and village meetings.Thread is best suited for artists that are able to work independently in their studio. We do not expect collaborations with local artisans, rather, we are interested in the convergence of everyday rural endeavors with the visiting artists’s visual arts practices. (Description provided by Josef & Anni Albers Foundation)