In this workshop we will question the idea of archive, inquiring how memory is inscribed in different gendered materialities. Students will have the opportunity to approach the concepts of testimonial archives and memory inscription and to appreciate how these concepts are unfolded in concrete examples and through their personal experience. The individual and collective practical work with textile materialities and documents that contribute to the inscription of memory will develop methodological skills and put to test notions and approaches proposed during the sessions.
The workshop will present various testimonial archives of human rights in Chile and Colombia and invite students deep into these infrastructures of memory. Some of the questions that will guide these explorations are: What are the materialities that define memory in these examples? Which experiences do they inscribe? How do these experiences relate to other memories about these events? How is gender normed in these infrastructures? How have communities participated in the creation of those infrastructures? With which effects? Can one identify emotional dimensions shaping these archives?
Practically speaking, students will be given guided exercises with examples of the materialities that are part of the chosen archives to think with them about how they document and produce memory. They will be also invited to knit and to meet and talk with local “arpilleristas”.
For the second day of the workshop students will be asked to bring a personal garment or object that they can link to the political history of their country. We will work on how memory is inscribed in clothes, textiles and objects, and work collectively in creating an ephemeral exhibit of those artifacts to think through the making about the connection between the personal and the political in contexts of violence and political upheaval.
Application form: https://forms.gle/J8K7NGBviXdaXsdq8
