Every year over 100 billion garments of clothing are produced globally, often by a workforce that is inadequately paid.

Each person in Austria on average buys about 60 pieces of clothing per year – which is more than one piece per week! – but wears them for only half as long as 15 years ago. In turn, the average Central European gets rid of 35 pieces of clothing per year. Some of these unworn and unloved pieces find their way into charity shops, though most end up in dump sites on the other side of the planet. Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned.

How Many Layers? is an empathy lab in the form of a series of practices in which the meaning of care in the garment supply chain is investigated and exposed. In participatory practices and exchanges, the laboratory aims to engage people in the process of shifting current production paradigms from a culture of exploitation and discardment to practices of caring and repairing.

In the open laboratory “Beyond Labels”, participants are invited to take a closer look at the things they are wearing. We will find out where our garments were assembled, who was involved in the process, and, eventually, where the materials used come from, and the unintended consequences their use might entail. This will help us to understand how the supply chain works, and highlight the interdependence of places, resources, and people upon which it relies.

Hand in hand with workers from the CARLA Recycling Center, we will dig into Vienna’s discarded garment bags to get a taste of the city’s textile waste streams. From the clothing container to the sorting facility to the CARLA Second Hand stores, about 50 tons of clothing are sorted out every week. Heavy work indeed!

A transdisciplinary panel discussion will provide space to share experiences and ideas, struggles and visions. How can people be engaged in the transformation from linear to circular models of production? Which challenges might this transition imply? In conversations with people working in different parts of the textile cosmos, we will debate possible forms of agency on an individual as well as a political level.

An open air performance will conclude the program as our act of care and solidarity in order to value the work of the people along the garment supply chain.