Struggle and resistance embroidery on display at CCMQ
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The exhibition Arpilleras: Embroidering Resistance is on display at Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana (Rua dos Andradas, 736), at Espaço Evelyn Ioschpe. The exhibition will remain in the space until April 9, featuring 15 works by women from the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB), who use the fabric to denounce violations of their rights. Visitation takes place from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10 am to 8 pm, free of charge.
The works use the technique known as arpillera, which brings manifestations of social themes made through embroidery and patchwork sewing. The method was born in Chile, during the Pinochet dictatorship, during the 1970s and 1990s, when women created compositions with the clothes of the disappeared, denouncing the regime’s oppressions. With quiet voices, they wrote letters and hid them in the bowels of fabrics so that their pain would be known.
A few decades separate the pain of Chilean women from the pain of women affected by dams, but the instrument of struggle remains the same. The Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) is an organization that fights for the violated rights of residents of areas affected by hydroelectric lakes and the collapse of dams of this type.
“A report released years ago by the Federal Government’s Council for the Defense of the Rights of the Human Person points to 16 human rights violated in the construction of dams. For example, the right to say no to dams, the right to adequate housing; to education; to work and a decent standard of living; a healthy environment and health, among others”, lists the state coordinator of the MAB, Alexania Rossato.
The MAB emerged in the south of Brazil at the end of the 1970s, when a strong movement began to build dams on the Uruguay River. The 2021 Dam Safety Report indicates that Brazil has more than 22,000 dams, half of which are located in Rio Grande do Sul. Currently, the State would have nine dams at risk of failure, one of them located in Lomba do Pinheiro, within the urban limits of Porto Alegre.
Since 2013, the MAB has proposed the construction of arpilleras by women affected by dams. The technique is used as a way of denouncing and organizing women within the movement, bringing debates such as gender violence, feminicide, water privatization, environmental preservation, among others.
The exhibition brings 15 works, 9 of them produced by women from other states and 6 produced by women from Rio Grande do Sul. Made by hand, without the aid of sewing machines, the pieces bring in the lines the pain and struggles of those who live on the margins of their rights. Embroidery and weaving, which have always been techniques associated with the feminine and the domestic, becoming invisible and devalued throughout history, now become a public debate, leaving behind the walls of the private sector and occupying the streets and museums. “This technique seeks to give voice to those who do not have a voice. It is a tool for dialogue between these women and society”, says Alexania.
More than the final work of art, the production process is extremely important, as it creates a space of affection and acceptance, where women can share their experiences and be heard. Each of the women brings her material: her fabric, her needle, her story, her claim. Thus, he transforms all these scraps into art, struggle and voice. The scream of these women goes beyond the physical barriers of sound and reaches spaces and audiences that they themselves may not reach. “We have an exhibition there in Germany, other pieces that have already traveled to Chile… It is a way of making ourselves present in places where we are not physically present, dialoguing and taking our message to other places and other audiences.”
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