“Never Lose Hope Nor Depart From The Path“: Textiles Of Resistance In The 1970s

Abstract

Shortly after the coup d’état of September 1973, a type of textiles made by women, known by the name of the fabric on which scenes of life under dictatorship were sewn and embroidered, began to develop in Greater Santiago under the auspices of the Pro Peace Commission and, later, the Vicariate of Solidarity: arpilleras. This article reconstructs the complex and fragmented history of a group of arpilleras in Chile linked to contemporary art through the Paulina Waugh Gallery; their circulation in Europe thanks to the efforts of solidarity hands such as those of gallery owners Paulina and Carmen Waugh, the organizer of the Salvador Allende Resistance Museum, Miria Contreras, artist Roberto Matta and English art critic Guy Brett; and the work of London-based American artist John Dugger, who transformed a small textile, now anonymous, into a large-scale piece designed to capture and reinforce the testimonies told, stitch by stitch, on a sackcloth. Emphasizing both the materiality of these textiles, as well as their exhibition history, the aim of this article is to link the arpilleras to the art of their time and to discuss their political and symbolic scope within the discipline of art history.

Keywords: Arpilleras, Vicarate of Solidarity, Museum of Resistance Salvador Allende, banner