Chilean popular resistance with needle and thread

50 years ago, Pinochet staged a coup in Chile. During the dictatorship that followed, women and family members of missing prisoners came together to represent their lives and traumas through the embroidery of colorful arpilleras.

The exhibition features a selection of arpilleras made between 1975 and 1990. The expo is curated by Javier Perugachi and is a concept by Irma Prado Pizarro. Irma came to Belgium from Chile in late 1973, where she supported the arpilleristas in solidarity from 1978. To the military regime, the arpilleras were a threat. Their possession was considered treason or a crime. Therefore, they were smuggled out of the country. Thus, Irma smuggled hundreds of arpilleras out of her homeland and today exhibits them in various places.

📏 40 meters
🕑 1h
📍 Amsab-ISG Bagattenstraat 174 9000 GENT