Friday, 29 March 2024

Event Details

Roberta Bacic (Conflict Textiles), Christine Carrothers (QUB Library) & Prof Richard English (Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice), at the recent Conflict Textiles exhibition launch.  (Photo: © QUB)

Roberta Bacic (Conflict Textiles), Christine Carrothers (QUB Library) & Prof Richard English (Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice), at the recent Conflict Textiles exhibition launch. (Photo: © QUB)

 

Permanent rotating exhibition:Conflict Textiles collection: McClay Library, Queen's University, Belfast
Description: This collaboration between Conflict Textiles and the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) developed from connections forged through the Following the footsteps of the disappeared exhibition (August 2020 - August 2021). It is a joint venture between Queen’s University Belfast’s Human Rights Centre and the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Justice and Security.

The online exhibition launch on 24th March 2021 coincided with the International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims (24 March). It incorporated contributions from Roberta Bacic, Prof Brandon Hamber, Dr Cheryl Lawther, Prof Kieran McEvoy and Dr Lauren Dempster.
Recording of Exhibition Launch (55 minutes).
Events convened: March 2021 - April 2022

A new rotation of four Conflict Textiles pieces was launched on Wednesday 6 April 2022, onsite at 16:00 in the Moot Court, School of Law, QUB and simultaneously streamed online Event Invitation. The four textiles are connected by the theme of women's resistance - a theme of relevance to the work of both the Human Rights Centre and the Mitchell Institute, and for students and academics elsewhere in the university.

In La Cueca Sola women dance the Chilean national dance - normally danced in pairs - alone and dressed in black, to denounce the actions of the state in disappearing their loved ones. Both Arpilleristas y cartoneros and Nuestro Taller de Arpilleras depict the arpilleristas themselves. The former is from Chile, and shows women resiliently continuing tasks - including making arpilleras - under the shadow of Pinochet's dictatorship. The latter is from Peru, and in it we see a group of women displaced as a result of the conflict in Peru gathering to make arpilleras. A group of internally displaced women in Colombia created NO MAS / No more, a textile which imagines their return to their home of Mampuján.

Collectively, these textiles are the testimonies of women impacted by dictatorship, disappearance, and displacement. They demonstrate the resilience of these women, the strength that comes from solidarity and collective action, and the value of textiles as a way of giving voice to those impacted by violence and repression.

Recording of Launch of new rotation of Conflict Textiles exhibition (56 minutes).
Queen's University Belfast, Human Rights Centre, (9th March, 2022) Launch of new rotation of Conflict Textiles exhibition

As an associated activity within the exhibition programme, Conflict Textiles will facilitate a workshop Textiles and the Social Fabric of the Colombian Conflict on Tuesday 14 March, 11:00 - 13:00.
Further details and registration information
Commissioned by: QUB Human Rights Centre; Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Justice and Security
Date(s): 24th March 2021 - 1st June 2023
Venue: McClay Library, Queen's University, Belfast
10 College Park Ave, Belfast BT7 1LP
Curator: Roberta Bacic, assisted by Breege Doherty
Facilitator: Lauren Dempster, School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast
Outcome: Over two years, 8 textiles were displayed on the ground floor of QUB’s McClay Library where hundreds of students passed by each day. Four events were hosted which were attended by QUB students and staff, and external visitors. The textiles were also used in teaching. The textiles were discussed as examples of ‘unofficial’ or ‘from below’ truth telling in the School of Law’s Transitional Justice module, and students across modules were encouraged to visit the exhibition.




Documents: • Textile list: Conflict Textiles, March 2021 - view
• Invite: Exhibition launch, 24th March - view
• Events: March 2021 - April 2022 - view
• Textile list: Conflict Textiles, April 2022 - view
• Invite: launch of 2nd CT rotation, 6 Apr 22 - view