Friday, 29 March 2024

Textile Details

'Panfleteando en el 1979 en Santiago/Leafleting in Santiago in 1979', Anonymous. (Photo: Martin Melaugh)
'Panfleteando en el 1979 en Santiago/Leafleting in Santiago in 1979', Anonymous. (Photo: Martin Melaugh)

 

Title of Textile:Panfleteando en el 1979 en Santiago / Leafleting in Santiago in 1979
Maker: Anonymous
Country of Origin: Chile
Year Produced: 1979
Size (cm): 45cm x 37cm
Materials: Scraps of material hand sewn onto burlap
Type of Textile: Arpillera
Description:

This colourful and somewhat childlike arpillera from the late 1970s, depicts a scene where campaigners are distributing pamphlets to pedestrians and drivers to raise awareness about the "Disappeared." According to Chile's fourth national Truth Commission Report on Torture and Political Imprisonment (Valech II), published in August 2011, there were a total of 3,216 cases of forced disappearance or political execution. A new state search initiative, announced in 2023, considers 1,469 of them to be still missing. Observatorio de Justicia Transicional, Universidad Diego Portales, Chile (2023)

Again, the traditional style of the mountains is represented here, using a myriad of colourful scraps of cloth. The sun, however, is not visible, perhaps symbolising the dangers that still prevailed. The large houses and trees indicate that this is not a shanty town; here the campaigners have been emboldened to bring their campaign into middle-class areas. Overall, this arpillera illustrates the relentless attempts made to reveal the unsavoury hidden truths which plagued certain groups within the society during the Pinochet era, truths which others often chose to ignore.

Jacquie Monty bought this arpillera, and several others, in the early 1980s whilst working for Oxfam on an exhibition focused on El Salvador and Chile. She donated it and two others (¿Dónde están nuestros hijos? / Where are our children?; Violencia en las calles de Santiago de Chile durante toque de queda / Violence in the streets of Santiago de Chile during curfew) to Conflict Textiles curator Roberta Bacic after meeting her at the exhibition The politics of Chilean Arpilleras organised by the Centre of Latin American Studies (CLAS), University of Cambridge (2008).

Owner: Conflict Textiles collection
Location: Conflict Textiles store
Original / Replica: Original
Photographer: Martin Melaugh
Provenance: Jacquie Monty, England (deceased)



Textile exhibited at: Arpilleras: Voices on Tapestries, 8/03/2010 - 31/03/2010
Arpilleras: Embajadoras para el Bicentenario Quilts/Arpilleras: Ambassadors for the B, 14/04/2010 - 20/05/2010
Exhibit of Chilean Arpilleras, 20/05/2010 - 22/05/2010
Stitching Resistance, 12/10/2010 - 16/01/2011
Arpilleras e resistência política no Chile , 30/07/2011 - 30/10/2011
Arpilleras of Chilean political resistance , 22/03/2012 - 5/06/2012
ÜberlebensKunst - Konfliktbearbeitung durch textile Bilder, 12/07/2012 - 26/08/2012
Stitching and Unstitching The Troubles-phase 1, 5/09/2012 - 29/09/2012
RETAZOS TESTIMONIALES: arpilleras de Chile y otras latitudes, 28/09/2013 - 10/11/2013
SMALL Actions BIG Movements, 1/07/2014 - 11/07/2014
Arpillera Journeys, 6/03/2015 - 12/06/2015
Rebelles exhibiton, as part of the FITE 2016 , 21/06/2016 - 31/12/2016
Stitching Memoryscape 「記憶風景を縫う」, 30/05/2017 - 12/06/2017
Stitching Memoryscape 「記憶風景を縫う」, 29/08/2017 - 3/09/2017
Following the footsteps of the disappeared, 30/08/2020 - 30/08/2021
Following the Footsteps of the Disappeared 2021, 31/08/2021 - 20/12/2021
Tras las huellas de los/as desaparecidos/as, 10/01/2022 - 5/02/2022



Textile Detail Image(s)