- Striped Path, installation view at festival KONVOOI 2023 © Maxime Vernedal
Emma Cogné
Emma brings architecture and textile into dialogue. Her narrative is structured around the notions of cohabitation and reassignment. Drawing from a personal repertoire of techniques and materials, she adapts to the resources at hand, turning the constraints of reality into the very substance of her field of play. She is interested in the translation of gestures and forms of knowledge, and in the circulation of objects across cultures: the “undercommons.”
At the core of her textile practice, which she has dubbed Système T, Emma develops a situated approach grounded in materials drawn from the ruins of industry and construction, chosen for the social, historical, and political narratives they embody. Through the use of pre-industrial techniques, she assigns these resources new roles and statuses.
Her work unfolds from material research to the creation of textile objects and scenographic installations, with sustained attention to scale, use, and the context of each project.
For Emma Cogné, textile functions as a pivotal medium: a threshold between the domestic and the collective. She seeks to preserve the intrinsic qualities of materials while opening up new modes of relation to the commons, conceiving ornamentation as a politics of care and attention.
Exhibitions & Fairs
2025 Semis, un lieu de Fabrication, Berny-en-Rivière, Fr
2025 Wonder Festival, "Spell Blanket", Courtrai, Be
2025 Biennale de St Etienne, « Ressource(s), présager demain », Fr
2025 "Perpetuo", TAMAT musée de la Tapisserie et des Arts textiles, Be
2025 "Woven Whispers" CID Grand-Hornu, Belgium is Design, Fr
2024 Pièges à soleil Gilbard.e.s , Be
2024 Darwin 15, Be
2024 Wandering threads , Lisbon design week, Pt
2023 KONVOOI festival 2023, Bruges, Be
2023 Specters of the future, Doel festival, Be
2023 HOME MADE - Créer, Produire, Habiter, CID Grand-Hornu, Be
2023 Des archives au design, CID Grand Hornu
2023 Next Door, Triphasé, Be
2022 The Waiting Room, Het Paviljoen, Be
2022 Voyage Voyage, Arcade design à la campagne, Fr
2022 Michael’s agency, Studio City Gate, Be
2022 The gift to be simple, New York Textile Month, US
2021 Um Cento de Cestos, Museu Arte Popular, Lisbonne
2021 Détours, Abbaye de Stavelot, Be
2021 Materia, CID Grand Hornu, Be
2020 Les usages du monde, World design capital, Gare St Sauveur, Lille, Fr
2018 Torronnées, Marronnées ERG Gallery, Be
2018 23rd Floor, WTCI, Northern Quarter Be
2025 Alcova Milano, Belgium is Design, It
2024 Maison & Objet Rising Talent Award, Paris, Fr
2023 Lake Como Design Festival, It
2023 MK&G Messe Young Talent, Hambourg, De
2023 Heimtextil fair, Franckfort, De
2022 Contemporary design market, Tour & taxi, Be
2022 Collectible Design Fair " Systems" La Bocca Della Verità gallery, Be
2022 «How & Wow Bask it!», Dutch Design Week, Nl
2019 Lake Como Design festival, Teatro sociale, It
2019 Collectible Design Fair, Be
2018 Talents !, Mohawk showroom, New-York, USA
Residency
Thread, Foundation Josef & Anni Albers, Sénégal
Saisons Zéro, Monastère des Clarisses, Roubaix
Alumni Artwell, Amsterdam
Summer school, Portuguese basket weaving technology, Lisbon
Award & grant
Rising Talent, Maison&Objet 2024 ★
Research Grant 2022, FWB
Finalist, Young Artist Award – Design Category, FWB ★
Prototyping Grant 2020, FWTremplin 2018
Award of the Minister of Higher Education ★
Tremplin 2018, TL Mag Award, Belgium ★
Finalist, Dorothy Waxman International Textile Design Competition
by Lidewij Edelkoort, USA
Lookbook Award, MAD Brussels – Fashion & Design Platform ★
Publications & press
La revue d'a n°322, "Sustainable screen"
The site magazine, issue 3 «Common Currencies»
Out of Catalogue, Zaventem Ateliers book
Domus magazine April 2022 issue
"Home made Créer, Produire, Habiter" de Fabien Petiot & Chloé Braunstein-Kriegel
Through Objects, interview about « Clareira »
TL mag, Constructing Textiles: Emma Cogné
New York Textile Month, Magalog, vol.3, Talents
édition Système T limitée à 50 exemplaires numérotés avec le soutien du MAD Brussels & Design platform
Education
Master design textile with distinction ENSAV La Cambre, Be
Bachelor design textile with mention ENSBA Lyon, Fr
Diplôme des métiers d'art Lycée la Source Nogent sur Marne, Fr
Contact
emma.cogne@gmail.com
Zaventem Ateliers
Instagram @cogneemma
Credits
Unless otherwise noted, the photographs presented are taken by Emma Cogné.
Web development and design by Studio Purple Paw (Léa Beaubois et Julie Patard).
Jet Light & Black by the Brownfox foundry
Dither it! tool by Alex Harris.
Special thanks to Giovanna Massoni, Maxime Vernedal, Jérôme Hoppe & Sydney Diack