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TAMAT highlights the work of artists and craftsmen from the 15th century to the present day. The textile collections of TAMAT, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the Province of Hainaut and the City of Tournai are presented in permanent and temporary exhibitions and constitute a wealth of historical, artistic and technical information.
TAMAT, the Museum of Tapestry and Textile Arts of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, presents an exceptional collection of eleven tapestries from the 15th and 16th centuries. Attributed to Tournai, they attest to the importance of the city as a centre of tapestry making and its undeniable influence in Europe during the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance.
Nine of them were acquired between 1953 and 1967 by the City of Tournai, thanks to war damages granted by the State. Tournai was indeed one of the most damaged cities in Belgium following the German bombings in May 1940. The Museum of History and Decorative Arts located in the Cloth Hall did not escape the disaster and its rich collections, including tapestries, were destroyed.
From the 1950s onwards, the town acquired tapestries from collectors, art galleries or at art market sales, which were certified as from Tournai, under the advice of specialist historians. These tapestries enriched the reborn collections of the new Museum of History and Archaeology, created at the same time.
In 1983, the project of a Tapestry Museum was born, combining the old collections and the current TAMAT, a non-profit organisation founded two years earlier. On the initiative of the French Community of Belgium, the Province of Hainaut and the City, the Hôtel Gorin, a former neo-classical mansion (1825), partly listed, was given a new purpose. In June 1990, the Tapestry Museum opened its doors and now exhibits the old tapestries, enriched by a tenth piece acquired by the French Community. In 2021, the King Baudouin Foundation decided to place an eleventh piece on deposit, acquired thanks to the Claire and Michel Lemay Fund.
In addition to these 15th and 16th century tapestries, the collections contain mainly more recent tapestries and textile works, but also cartoons, tracings and drawings. A series of tools is also included. These collections allow us to observe and understand the stylistic changes that have taken place from the tapestries of the Middle Ages to the present day. Tapestries from the 15th and 16th centuries bear witness to the historical know-how that made Tournai a leading textile town, while the tapestries by the cardboard painters of the “Forces Murales” group reveal the new spirit that was present in this generation of artists immediately after the war. Finally, the works of contemporary artists allow us to discover specific languages and the strength with which textile art is fully anchored in contemporary art.
The tapestry and textile art collections managed by TAMAT concern pieces belonging mainly to the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, TAMAT, the Province of Hainaut and the City of Tournai. Some of the works are deposited by artists. The works and creations of the scholarship holders of the research and experimentation workshop enrich (since 2018) this diversity of expressions, existing in contemporary creation. Thus, the collections managed by TAMAT provide a coherent panorama of the evolution of tapestry and textile arts, the majority of which are by Belgian artists.