Thursday, 28 March 2024

Textile Details

'Desplazamiento / Displacement', Mujeres tejiendo sueños y sabores de paz, Mampuján. (Photo: Martin Melaugh)
'Desplazamiento / Displacement', Mujeres tejiendo sueños y sabores de paz, Mampuján. (Photo: Martin Melaugh)

 

Title of Textile:Desplazamiento / Displacement
Maker: Mujeres tejiendo sueños y sabores de paz, Mampuján
Country of Origin: Colombia
Year Produced: 2010
Size (cm): 64cm (w) x 76cm (h)
Materials: Scraps of material hand sewn onto burlap
Type of Textile: Arpillera
Description:

Displacement is the theme of this arpillera, created by a group of 15 women who survived the massacre of Mampuján by the paramilitary coalition, United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) on 11 March 2000. AUC was a coalition of right-wing counter-insurgency paramilitary groups which was alleged to have links to the military and members of the government and congress, a number of whom were indicted before the courts for collusion. The entire community of Mampuján Viejo, along with families from the nearby community of Las Brisas, more than 1,400 people, was displaced at this time. Villagers fled when the AUC accused them of cooperating with insurgent guerrillas and threatened to kill them if they didn't vacate within 24 hours.

Juana Alicia Ruiz, one of the women who created this arpillera has this to say on the theme of displacement: "Displacement in Colombia is like any typical displacement as it happens at times during night. It includes violent rape, burning of houses, having to leave behind belongings, houses and animals. The lady who is being carried on a hammock is a sick person, very old and who cannot walk. She is like the soul of the village."

Almost 20 years after the Mampuján massacre, despite the November 2016 peace agreement between the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), violence continues to displace Colombians. Afro-Colombian communities and indigenous people have been particularly affected. By 2017 a staggering 7.4 million Colombians were internally displaced people (IDPs), making it a nation with one of the highest number of IDPs. UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler (10th March 2017). In the intervening years the figures have not decreased.

Owner: Conflict Textiles collection
Location: Conflict Textiles store
Original / Replica: Original
Photographer: Martin Melaugh
Provenance: Donation from Mujeres tejiendo sueños y sabores de paz, Mampuján to Roberta Bacic (2010). It was taken from Colombia by Amparo Herrero, who brought it to Roberta via solidarity channels.



Textile exhibited at: Transforming threads of resistance, 27/02/2012 - 9/03/2012
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
Disobedient Objects, 26/07/2014 - 11/02/2015
Conflict Textiles collection: Tower Museum and Guildhall, 11/07/2016 - 16/12/2016
Arpilerak: Memoriaren Haritik Etorkizuna Josten / Arpilleras: Al Hilo De La Memoria, 12/04/2018 - 24/04/2018
ARIPILLERAS: AL HILO DE LA MEMORIA, TEJIENDO FUTURO / Arpilleras: Knitting the Future, 25/04/2018 - 30/05/2018
Threads, War and Conflict, 3/04/2019 - 29/04/2019
Poesie des Nähens / The Poetry of Stitching, 17/01/2020 - 8/03/2020
"A Museum For Me", part of the Culture Unconfined Festival, 11/05/2020 - 31/07/2020
Nonviolence in Action: Antimilitarism in the 21st Century, 24/03/2021 - 31/12/2021
Con-textualizando la memoria / Contextualising memory, 4/09/2021 - 8/09/2021
Suitcases: Telling Textile Travels /Maletas: Contando Viajes Textiles, 1/10/2021 - 7/11/2021
Conversatorio: Tejiendo Resistencia Antimilitarista y Noviolenta a la Guerra, 7/10/2021 - 7/10/2021
Sewing Resistance to Militarism: Arpilleras and other transnational textiles, 14/11/2021 - 14/11/2021
Con-textualising Memory / Con-textualizando la memoria, 10/12/2021 - 10/12/2021
Human Rights through textile language: The Oxford Human Rights Festival , 11/03/2022 - 20/03/2022
How Transitional Justice Ideas Travel: Dealing with the Legacy of the Past in Norther, 10/02/2023 - 10/02/2023
Textiles and the Social Fabric of the Colombian Conflict, 14/03/2023 - 14/03/2023
Stitching our Stories: Displacement, Healing, New Possibilities, 23/11/2023 - 23/11/2023



Textile Detail Image(s)