Friday, 29 March 2024

Textile Details

'En el lado “bueno” de la valla / On the “Good
'En el lado “bueno” de la valla / On the “Good" Side of the Fence', by Antonia Amador. (Photo: Martin Melaugh)

 

Title of Textile:En el lado “bueno” de la valla / On the “Good" Side of the Fence
Maker: Antonia Amador
Country of Origin: Catalonia
Year Produced: 2015
Size (cm): 47cm x 46cm
Materials: Scraps of material hand sewn onto burlap
Type of Textile: Arpillera
Description:

This arpillera depicts the perilous sea journey undertaken by people fleeing their homelands in Africa to escape war and persecution, in search of a better life in Europe. Not all survive the journey. A recent UNHCR report revealed that in 2018, 58,000 people, more than double the figure in 2017, arrived in Spain via the sea route. In the same period, the death rate increased by threefold, from 202 to 777. https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/67712#_ga=2.74278162.1846643836.1551099833-501375489.1550664532

Arpillerista Antonia, enraged by these stories, informs us through a letter tucked in a pocket at the back of her arpillera: “On the “good” side of the fence [shows] that …while on the boat they never thought they would find their death.” She graphically portrays the arrival of these asylum seekers and migrants who “believed they [were coming] to paradise.” Instead, she tells us, “it was the Police that awaited them on the shore of the peninsula.”

From there, they are transported onwards to detention centers while the courts decide if they will be granted refugee status or deported.

Such a repressive, undignified system, where the odds are stacked against those journeying forth in the hope of a better life prompts Antonia to conclude: “What a shame that in the XXl century human rights are not respected....We all have the right to a dignified life, no matter where you come from.”

Owner: Ulster Museum collection
Location: Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Original / Replica: Original
Photographer: Martin Melaugh
Provenance: Acquired from Conflict Textiles collection (2022)



Textile exhibited at: Arpilleras Dialogantes / Arpillera Conversations, 28/05/2015 - 28/05/2015
Overcoming, Remembering: The Politics of Sewing, 8/06/2015 - 12/06/2015
Arpilleras Bordando à Resistência / Arpilleras Embroidering Resistance, 25/09/2015 - 25/10/2015
Rebelles exhibiton, as part of the FITE 2016 , 21/06/2016 - 31/12/2016
Chilean Arpilleras, 29/06/2016 - 29/06/2016
Stitching Memoryscape 「記憶風景を縫う」, 30/05/2017 - 12/06/2017
Stitching Memoryscape 「記憶風景を縫う」, 1/07/2017 - 9/07/2017
Stitching Memoryscape 「記憶風景を縫う」, 29/08/2017 - 3/09/2017
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
Embracing Human Rights, 5/11/2019 - 18/12/2019
Nonviolence in Action: Antimilitarism in the 21st Century, 24/03/2021 - 31/12/2021
Conversatorio: Tejiendo Resistencia Antimilitarista y Noviolenta a la Guerra, 7/10/2021 - 7/10/2021
Outbound ticket / Boleto de ida, 25/04/2022 - 14/09/2022



Textile Detail Image(s)