ABOUT NÜ

Nü (born July 02, 1984, Graz, Austria), Austrian artist, designer and avantgarde spirit who produced a multifaceted array of textile work, including collections, embroideries, sculptural installations, prints, videos and photographs.

She is the founder of the Hause Nü, based in Berlin which is dedicated to Arts and Crafts and offers space for inspiring collaborations with artists, designers and artisans.

Nü Tri’s parents are refugees from Vietnam, who came to Austria to built up a new life. As members of the cantonchinese minority Hoa, Nü is a mixture of various cultural influences. As a youth Nü became interested in textile arts and in 2003 she enrolled at the Castle Hetzendorf, Vienna Art University for fashion design.

During her studies she was constantly engaged in projects and collaborations with students. After her graduation she moved to Berlin to establish her own brand. With strong dedication and personal commitment she is working on the preservation of traditional handcraft techniques and engaging in social development projects.

In her latest project “Pack To The Roots” funded by the federal chancellery of the Republic of Austria and the Goethe Institute Hanoi she took its title literally. „Pack To The Roots“ is a project that combines her own biographical quest with an endeavour for ecologically and socially sustainable textile production.
For this purpose, Nü created an exclusive product that brings together innovative design and traditional textile crafts from Vietnam: NuPack, a cotton made rucksack whose folding reminds one of that one of a paper bag. This backpack is produced in Vietnam in the course of a tailoring workshop dedicated to disadvantaged female employees. Through this initiative, a group of Vietnamese women shall be empowered to improve their financially and socially precarious living conditions by themselves and their own tailoring.

In order to open up an tranparent insight of production chain and circumstances, Nü documents everything on video. Footages of the journey, its people and production conditions serve as a starting point for a series of “webisodes” that will be available on her website as well as on Vimeo.

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“Mit meiner Arbeit habe ich derzeit meine Zelte in Berlin aufgeschlagen und da ich meine Berufung darin sehe, das kulturell verwurzelte Handwerksgut aufrechtzuerhalten, arbeite ich enthusiastisch an einem nachhaltigen Entwicklungsprojekt.

Die Herausforderung im Design liegt darin den Zeitgeist zu treffen und zeitlose Kreationen zu schaffen. Es ist ein kontinuierliches Ausbalancieren von Althergebrachten und Neuem.

Auf meiner Entdeckungs- und Arbeitsreise verschmilzt meine asiatisch-österreichische Handschrift mit den Formen und Mustern anderer Kulturen und Ethnien. Die größte Bereicherung in meinen internationalen Kollaborationen ist der soziale Austausch.”