Textile
Details
'Un corazón como el de todos / A heart like everyone else', Jhonatan/Edwin, 2019, ETCR Llano Grande, Dabeiba, Antioquia, Colombia. © (Des)tejiendo miradas. (Photo: Laura Coral Velazquez)
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| Description: | This textile was embroidered by Jhonatan, a young ex-combatant of the demobilised guerrilla group FARC, whose “identity document name” is Edwin. He lives in the so-called Territorial Capacitation and Reincorporation Space (ETCR), one of the areas designated for the settlement of demobilised ex-combatants by the Colombian state.
For Jhonatan, participating in the project “(Un-)Stitching Gazes” was a space to reflect on the transformation process he and his comrades are undergoing: “When I’m embroidering, I concentrate. There’s even a moment when I don’t think about anything. I focus on the stitches, that I do them well... And it’s like a good feeling. As in one way or another, with each stitch, it’s like letting go of those burdens that one carries, so to speak”. For Jhonatan, the slow process of embroidering is part of telling the story, it reflects “our [reincorporation] process, we know that it is hard, that it takes time”, just as does needlework.
About his textile “A heart like everyone else” he says: “I always hear that guerrillas are not human beings, that we are demons, they portray us as monsters. I chose a heart because it is a synonym for life, it is the most important organ”.
A Spanish translation by Berit Bliesemann de Guevara is available here and in the 'textile detail' section below.
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