| Description: | This arpillera was made by a group of women called Mujeres del Mundo-Babel (Women of the Babel-World), from various parts of the world, who live in Bilbao. The inspiration for this arpillera stemmed from a visit by Esther Vital to The Art of Survival: International and Irish Quilts exhibition in Derry/Londonderry, 2008. There, she was moved by the power of textiles, especially arpilleras.
Later in Bilbao, Esther shared her experience with the group. Enthused by her, they created an arpillera to commemorate their 10th anniversary: "to document and recognize to ourselves our 10 years of surviving, struggles and challenges."
A collective arpillera represents their journey as an organization (the boat), supported by small individual arpilleras (the sea). Esther reiterates the power of textiles as she reflects: "We had a feeling of power when we were making the arpillera, the feeling of writing our history, and the power of telling out our claims, our wishes to the universe."
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