UNIC CityLab Fashion and Migration: Garments as Memory Records of Identity, Memory and Emotions

During March and April 2026, a research project entitled UNIC CityLab Fashion and Migration: Garments as Memory Records of Identity, Memory and Emotions. The CityLab project was developed within the category of UNICART Engaged Research Laboratories (UNICARTELs) under Thematic Line 7 – Arts, Culture and Creativity, as part of the project The European University of Cities in Post-Industrial Transition (UNIC). The project was implemented through collaboration between the University of Zagreb Faculty of Textile Technology, the association Živi atelje DK and its collective Women to Women (Žene ženama), and the City of Zagreb. The project was led by Professor Katarina Nina Simončič, PhD, while Dr Duje Kodžoman, Senior Assistant, and Jozefina Ćurković, Teaching and Research Assistant, participated as mentors. The aim of the project was to explore, through collaboration among academia, civil society organisations, independent experts, and the wider public, the potential of garments as a medium for dialogue and the exchange of experiences among individuals with migration backgrounds, students, and the local community. The project was implemented as part of the Contemporary Fashion course within the graduate programme Fashion Theory and Culture at the Faculty of Textile Technology, University of Zagreb. The mentoring process began with a series of lectures delivered by project mentors and guest lecturers from universities in Rotterdam, İstanbul, and Łódź. Students analysed garments and, using a cultural-anthropological approach, structured their historical and symbolic narratives. Guided by the principles of emotional design and by the multisensory nature of textiles as an artistic medium, they co-created textile collages with individuals with migration backgrounds, using them as carriers of associative emotions connected to the analysed garments. The project outcomes were presented during a public event held on 23 and 24 April 2026 at ZgForum (UNIC Centre for City Futures Zagreb). The programme included a participatory laboratory, where citizens provided feedback to the authors of the artworks (23 April), as well as a panel discussion and a pop-up exhibition of textile collages and photographs produced during the project (24 April). The panel discussion, dedicated to integration practices in cultural and artistic projects, brought together Professor Anica Hursa Šajatović, PhD, Dean of the Faculty of Textile Technology, University of Zagreb; Željka Sartori, Head of the Department for the Promotion of Human Rights at the City Office for Culture and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb; and Petra Matić, museologist, independent researcher, curator, and project collaborator, moderated by Professor Katarina Nina Simončič, PhD. Alongside textile collages co-created by students of the graduate programme in Textile and Fashion Design (Višnja Cerovec, Marta Jurišić, Irena Kosmačin, Doris Lenarčić, and Ana Piplica) and members of the Women to Women collective (Jasenka Kosir, Mensura Juranović, Samaneh Reihani, Arpy Zkoushian, and Hibba Katassh), an important component of the exhibition consisted of photographs by Luka Pešun, who was also responsible for the project’s photographic documentation, while Tomislav Paviša served as videographer and editor. The project would not have been possible without the support of UNIC UniZg Team.