RIGA.- From 10 April to 3 May 2026, the international exhibition Artisanal Intelligence will be on view in the Bosse Hall of the Art Museum RIGA BOURSE in Riga, inspiring to explore the interaction between ancestral knowledge, craftsmanship and contemporary design, seeking sustainable visions for the future of the fashion and textile industry.

Riga is one of the stops on the project’s European tour, and the exposition can be visited together with the exhibition Snow Melts. Japanese Art presented in the museum’s Great Hall. The exhibition Artisanal Intelligence is the outcome of an international research residency programme organised by KNOTTO in co-operation with the European Union Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, within the framework of the Osaka World Expo. Through an open call, five artists, designers and craftspeople from various European countries were selected to spend one month in Japan working alongside Japanese craftspeople and developing joint research projects rooted in diverse cultural experiences.

At the centre of the project lies the question: how can ancestral knowledge help heal the existing fashion and textile industry? The exhibition highlights that traditional craftsmanship is inherently sustainable. It is grounded in natural resources, handwork, the transmission of skills, and long-lasting quality. In contrast to short-term consumption, craftsmanship reminds us of values in which importance lies not only in the final result, but also in the making process, the origin of materials and the person who applies this knowledge.

The title Artisanal Intelligence was chosen as an invitation to recognise the fragility and significance of manual work, skills and the people who preserve them. The project emphasises that many craft traditions are currently at a critical moment: as master craftspeople grow older and the transmission of specialised skills declines, not only the survival of a single craft but often an entire chain of interconnected knowledge is put at risk.

The exhibition presents five intercultural co-operation stories between creative professionals from Europe and Japan. Among them are the collaboration between Dutch textile designer Laura Luchtman and Kato Tsuyoshi, representative of a Kyoto flag and textile studio; the joint work of Austrian footwear designer Matthias Winkler and Ishigashira Etsu, a saki-ori craftswoman; the project by Latvian artist Elīza Māra Kamradze-Tūtere and ikebana artist Toru Watarai; the collaboration between Bulgarian fashion designer Stefan Kartchev and Shimogawa Kyozo, a master of Kurume kasuri; as well as the joint research by Armenian curator Nairi Khatchadourian and silk weaver Uehara Michiko.

Each of these projects sheds light on a different approach to craftsmanship – from silk weaving to ikebana, from socially responsible production to the transformation of materials. At the same time, they all demonstrate that craftsmanship is not merely a legacy of the past, but a living, evolving and contemporary practice capable of creating new dialogues between cultures, generations and ways of thinking.

The exhibition invites visitors to think of craftsmanship both as an aesthetic or historical phenomenon and as a socially, ecologically and culturally substantial model for action. Today, when the fashion and textile industry faces the consequences of overproduction, waste of resources and standardisation, Artisanal Intelligence offers an alternative perspective – one in which knowledge, care, collaboration, and sustainable development matter.

Text by Kristīne Milere