| Description: | These three arpilleras titled: 1) Las manos de henna / Henna hands 2) La paella para mis nietos / The paella for my grandchildren and 3) La mujer arbol / Tree Woman, are the outcome of the community experience: Arpilleras, Women Sewing Stories, which took place in the neighbourhood of Fundació Sant Roc, Badalona on the outskirts of the city of Barcelona in Spain.
In 2008 a Fundació Ateneu volunteer, on discovering the power of arpilleras when attending an arpilleras exhibition in Barcelona, enthused women from Ateneu and Sant Roc parish to begin their journey into the arpillera world. This culminated in an exhibition that travelled all around Catalonia.
In November 2010, three women from Sant Roc travelled to Derry/Londonderry for the launch of the exhibition The Human Cost of War. There they met exhibition curator, Roberta Bacic who suggested that they exhibit at the Verbal Arts Centre (VAC), Derry/Londonderry, a centre which since 2008 has exhibited 26 textile installations, from various communities around the world. Sant Roc, a Diverse Neighbourhood, exhibited in the VAC in 2011, is the result of this commitment.
The three pieces on display here: Las manos de Henna / Henna Hands; La paella para mis nietos / The Paella for my Grandchildren and; La Mujer Árbol / The Tree Woman, capture the personal views of the world inhabited by these women, diverse in age, origin and cultural background. Amid such diversity, arpillera making has acted as a communicational bridge.
For these arpilleristas their arpilleras are: 'the stories of memories, dreams and personal experiences.' Roser Corbera, of the Fundació Ateneu Sant Roc, tells us that through the arpilleras 'women have found a way to express themselves, the voice of the voiceless, they feel valued.'
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