Named after the Spanish term for the burlap sacks that serve as their backing substrate, arpilleras are the embroidered textile artefacts created in Chile during Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship (1973–1989). The group of arpilleras shown at the Biennale Arte is part of a vast collection of over two hundred works donated to New York’s El Museo del Barrio. Although their provenance remains unclear, the textiles were likely acquired by their donor at solidarity sales in the 1980s, as this was the primary mode in which US audiences encountered arpilleras at that time. They were also present internationally in the homes of Latin American exiles and their influence continues to reverberate today in the works of younger artists such as Carolina Caycedo and Maria Guzmán Capron. Presented one year after the fiftieth anniversary of the coup d’état and amidst political uncertainty in Chile, the arpilleras remind us of the continuous struggles for institutional change in the South American nation, still ruled by the constitution imposed by Pinochet’s regime. Each arpillera’s shining sun, however, offers a hopeful sign of change.
This is the first time Unidentified Chilean artists, Arpilleristas are presented at Biennale Arte.
—Rodrigo Moura
