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Scientific and cultural project
After 40 years of existence and various names – from Fondation de la Tapisserie to Centre d’art contemporain – TAMAT is now known as the Musée de la Tapisserie et des Arts Textiles de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.
TAMAT, with its strong intrinsic link to the city where it is located, operates in a spirit of public service, with the objective of accessibility to culture at the heart of its action. Located in the museum district of Tournai, the capital of Walloon Picardy and an emblematic city of the Eurometropolis, it is aimed at both Tournai residents and visiting tourists.
Housing both different textile art collections and an artistic research centre welcoming young artists, TAMAT benefits from its hybrid identity to create bridges between heritage and contemporary creation, between past and present.
TAMAT has developed a unique scientific and cultural project in the museum landscape of Tournai, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and even Belgium, which is expressed in its collections, its conservation constraints, its acquisition policy, its method of enhancing the value of the collections, its mediation tools and devices, its audiences and public development actions, its partnerships and networks, its communication, etc.
As its name indicates, TAMAT is the Museum of Tapestry and Textile Arts in and of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Located in a former mansion – with a neoclassical façade and converted into a museum space in 1990 – it aims to make the history and current status of tapestry intelligible, a living creative discipline and material culture that bears witness to major artistic, cultural, social, societal and economic issues.
It approaches this field by first highlighting Tournai tapestry from the 15th and 16th centuries, placed in a national and international context. The result of stylistic and technological developments, tapestry is now part of the field of textile arts. The latter are presented in connection with the Tournai region, the cradle of the 20th century tapestry revival, in a semi-permanent scenography with the evocative title Tournai, textile territory.
Thanks to an active policy of donations, deposits and purchases, the museum collects representative pieces of ancient Tournai tapestry and 20th century tapestry in Belgium (Forces Murales, Nouvelle Tapisserie). With the aim of making this discipline intelligible, it also brings together a collection of contemporary textile creations, on an international scale, as well as a certain number of textile pieces from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries of a rather decorative nature, but which are relevant in view of the local textile industry from which they originate (foot carpets, savonnerie).
These textile and tapestry collections have conservation constraints that prevent them from being exhibited permanently. Therefore, the museum presents its collections through a semi-permanent reference exhibition (permanent space with rotation of pieces) or temporary exhibitions (presentation of new acquisitions and monographic, thematic or chronological exhibitions in the Cube – exhibition space near the reception – and on the 1st and 2nd floors).
The fact that the museum operates mainly through temporary exhibitions has consequences for its approach to the public, both in terms of mediation and communication. The fact that it also deals with contemporary creation influences its actions in terms of building networks and partnerships. In addition, the museum aims to develop and disseminate knowledge about Tournai tapestry in Tournai, Wallonia and Belgium through research on its collections, the study of archives, the collection and transmission of know-how, the provision of a specialised documentary fund, the construction of a critical discourse on current creation and support for young textile artistic production via artistic research grants and soon thanks to the provision of a textile coworking space.
TAMAT also manages the tapestry collections of the City of Tournai, the Province of Hainaut and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. It also holds pieces on long-term deposit (King Baudouin Foundation, National Lottery, private deposits) and its own collections.
Ateliers tournaisiens, Tapisserie héraldique aux Armes d’Adrien de Croÿ-de Melun
The museum’s collections include pieces recognised as treasures of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, namely the two tapestries made in Tournai with the coat of arms of Adrien de Croÿ, dating from the middle of the 16th century.