Arts-based research on the potentials of natural indigo dyeing

Indigo is the only natural dye that can achieve a permanent blue color on textile materials. Its production involves a time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also fascinating process that has inspired artists around the world over the course of time. Indigo extraction and indigo vat dyeing, which were already in use over 6,000 years ago, are among the earliest cultural biotechnological processes. Since its fully synthetic production by A. Baeyer in 1897, synthetic indigo, in combination with reducing agents such as sodium dithionite, has increasingly met the demands of ever-faster commercial production, regardless of the associated ecological and economic problems.

In view of the diverse uses of indigo and the growing awareness of ecological responsibility—including the need to ensure both human and environmental health and the traceability of production processes—the project investigated how dyeing with natural indigo and practices that have already been lost or are gradually disappearing can be transferred to the future in a sustainable and socially relevant manner. The aim of the research project was to identify new approaches to dyeing with natural indigo, its cultivation, and community-based agricultural practices for the 21st century. The findings were not only shared within the Central European indigo community, but also incorporated into the IBIKASO indigo and agriculture project in Mali initiated by Aboubakar Fofana.

Growing our own indigo in cooperation with Tristan Toé, an organic farmer who grew up in Mali and has been growing organic vegetables in the Waldviertel region since 2011, mainly by hand, represented an alternative to conventional farming systems and offered not only the opportunity to cultivate indigo in a healthy, intact environment characterized by biological diversity, but also to explore the potential of organically grown indigo and to bring back to Mali and other countries of the Global South the knowledge about the possibilities of restoring and preserving ecosystems and maintaining biodiversity. The collaborative practice with Aboubakar Fofana, a multidisciplinary artist from Mali known for his years of efforts to preserve and revitalize West African textile and indigo dyeing techniques, made it possible to explore indigo in its historical, philosophical, social, and political context, to open up spaces of possibility for knowledge production and the breaking down of established knowledge structures, and to raise awareness of the following questions: How can textile processes and artistic dialogues be used to create a space for cultural, social, and ecological responsibility? What does artistic research achieve in society? And what approaches to social change are possible? Can the past provide us with useful guidance for the future? What impact do global challenges such as climate change, depletion of natural resources, mismanagement, poverty, demographic change, and migration have on our own artistic research? What does it mean today to act as a postcolonial artist and to oppose the powerful paradigm of Eurocentrism?

Using artistic research methods, a cross-disciplinary knowledge assemblage was created that reflects on the social and ecological relevance and impact of sustainable practices, as well as the importance of mindful respect for living materials, our environment, and society. On the one hand, the aim was to (re)establish a relationship with the earth and the cycles of nature and to counteract the current maximum exploitation of resources with a use of the earth based on respect and appreciation – which we consider an essential prerequisite for ecological and economic change. On the other hand, it was also about taking social dimensions into account and opening up spaces for thinking and acting that enable encounters and collaborations with people based on curiosity, interest, and solidarity.