Violencia en Ayacucho/Violence in Ayacucho
Artist: FCH Mujeres Creativas workshop
Medium: Textiles
Artist Statement: This arpillera, a replica of the 1985 original, was based on a child’s drawing of his memories of the military arriving in Ayacucho in south-central Peru. His mother, through the Mujeres Creativas workshop, transformed it into an arpillera. It depicts the violence and repression of the 1980s and 1990s in Peru where over 600,000 people were displaced as a result of armed conflict between the government, self-defence groups and insurgent forces of the Shining Path and the Tupac Amaru Resistance Movement.
Biography
Artist Biography: Conflict Textiles is home to a large collection of international textiles, exhibitions and associated events, and is mainly comprised of arpilleras (brightly coloured patchwork pictures) and quilts and wall hangings, all of which focus on elements of conflict and human rights abuses. Conflict Textiles is an ‘Associated Site’ of CAIN (Conflict Archive on the Internet) at Ulster University, Northern Ireland. Making visible the struggle for the disappeared remains at the very core of the collection. Roberta Bacic is the curator of Conflict Textiles and is a Chilean Collector, Curator and Human Rights Advocate living in Northern Ireland. \n Arpilleras (pronounced ‘ar-pee-air-ahs’) can be described as three-dimensional, appliquéd tapestries of Latin America that originated in Chile. These became the medium for women, generally working collectively, to denounce the human rights abuses and repression of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile from 1973 to 1990. The art of making arpilleras subsequently spread to women’s groups in Peru and more recently to Spain, Brazil, Argentina, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Zimbabwe, Colombia, Canada, New Zealand and Ecuador. Stories of political conflict, anti-war protests, repression, survival, denial, death, disappearances, displacement, indigenous land struggles and transition to democracy continue to find expression in textile form. \n The Conflict Textiles selection of artworks for the Transformative Memories exhibition consists of 12 hanging textiles or arpilleras, one memory box and one set of embroidered, printed handkerchiefs mounted as bunting. \n
