Chilean arpilleras and their circulation beyond national borders: art and political resistance.

Abstract

The present research project, at the scientific initiation level, has as object the Chilean arpilleras, a technique of artisanal production of embroidery, used as a form of resistance and denunciation of the Chilean Military Dictatorship during the years from 1973 to 1990. The proposal presented here is to investigate the context of production of the works, as well as the forms of organization of their producers, the so-called Arpillerists, in order to understand their political and social meanings and their dissemination to other countries and contexts of political struggle. For this, we intend to carry out a bibliographical and digital survey on the arpilleras and their different uses, prioritizing, as a temporal cut, the period of the Pinochet government, but moving forward in time, since we identify the circulation of these productions in Brazil. Considering the scarce academic production on the subject, mainly in Portuguese, we aim to expand the debates and the production of knowledge about this cultural and social phenomenon, with a strong political connotation, which is an example of the defense of democracy, through art, and of women's performance in public space in times of authoritarianism.