Friday, 29 March 2024

Textile Details

'Recuerdos de trabajo y Guerra / Memories of work and war', by Rosa Cortés García, Women Sewing History Workshop, Badalona. (Photo: Roser Corbera)
'Recuerdos de trabajo y Guerra / Memories of work and war', by Rosa Cortés García, Women Sewing History Workshop, Badalona. (Photo: Roser Corbera)

 

Title of Textile:Recuerdos de Trabajo y Guerra / Memories of Work and War
Maker: Rosa Cortés García, Women Sewing History Workshop
Country of Origin: Catalonia
Year Produced: 2009
Size (cm): Standard size
Materials: Scraps of material hand and machine sewn onto fabric backing
Type of Textile: Arpillera
Description:

Inspired by her father's memories of the terrible hardship he suffered during the Spanish Civil War, Rosa's arpillera, in the lower section, depicts his imprisonment in a concentration camp in the Andalusia city of Seville.

In the upper part of the arpillera, Rosa portrays her personal experiences from the post-war period. Like many poor and illiterate women, she endured very harsh working conditions: "I worked wrapping oranges in paper for export. When we weren't doing that, they made us peel the bitter ones and put the skins out in the sun to dry. They were used to make gunpowder. I was paid hardly anything."

Through these stories and personal experiences we see the human cost of war. On the one hand, via stories passed down from one generation to another, there is the violation of human rights of those who resisted; and, on the other, via the experiences of the maker, the consequences suffered by women in their daily lives in an oppressive state. The struggle for justice, especially for families who lost loved ones during this time, still continues.

Owner: Fundació Ateneu Sant Roc collection
Location: Fundació Ateneu Sant Roc, Catalonia/Spain
Original / Replica: Original
Photographer: Roser Corbera
Provenance: Fundació Ateneu Sant Roc arpillera programme.



Textile exhibited at: The Human Cost of War, 8/11/2009 - 21/11/2009
Transforming threads of resistance, 27/02/2012 - 9/03/2012
ÜberlebensKunst - Konfliktbearbeitung durch textile Bilder, 12/07/2012 - 26/08/2012
Stitching and Unstitching The Troubles-phase 1, 5/09/2012 - 29/09/2012



Textile Detail Image(s)