The Collection

Fatim Soumaré is a visual artist, weaver, and craftswoman whose practice is rooted in the textile traditions of West Africa. Introduced to hand-dyeing and textile crafts by her mother, a master dyer of thioup fabrics, Soumaré’s work explores the preservation and transformation of indigenous knowledge through woven sculpture, inclusive installations, and performance. Her practice reflects on the cultural and ecological significance of cotton and the ways traditional techniques can adapt to contemporary life.

After living in Paris, where she worked in theater costume design and finance, Soumaré returned to Senegal in 2020 to dedicate herself fully to weaving and textile arts. In 2021, she founded Falé, a collective that today brings together more than 200 women in five villages of the Sine-Saloum to sustain the endangered tradition of hand-spun, rain-fed cotton. Alongside the collective, she established a workshop-laboratory devoted to cotton research, production, and design, ensuring that traditional skills are maintained, revalorized, and passed on to future generations.

Through Falé and her own artistic practice, Soumaré contributes to the revival of a vital craft tradition, positioning it within contemporary art and design while strengthening local rural ecosystems and empowering communities of women artisans.