The city of Lota, Chile, may not have much significance from an outsider’s perspective, but the art created by the women of the Biobío region gives rich historical context through narratives of solidarity.
The Memorias de la Mujer Lotina: Arpilleras, Women, and Coal in Chile exhibition in the Krannert Art Museum showcases 22 textiles made of fabric scraps, thread and appliqués — also known as arpilleras. These artworks display both the personal histories of their creators and of cultural heritage sites, many being influenced by the region’s coal mining history.
The exhibition also features a 16-foot-long arpillera made by 52 Chilean women from ages 14 to 92, which creates a map of the city and visual history from the point of view of the women in Lota.
Popular during the Pinochet dictatorship, where Chilean citizens were subjected to torture and state violence under military rule, arpilleras were used as a way of storytelling and artistic resistance to condemn political violence and forced disappearances of relatives, according to exhibition curator and professor in FAA Magdalena Novoa. Today, they have evolved into a form of feminist activism — a way to bring awareness to inequality and human rights issues and inform debates on policy and preservation planning.
“It’s a very important social justice traditional craft now that women continue to use for social justice issues,” Novoa said.
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Created in group workshops, Novoa said arpilleras are also symbols of collective memory, sisterhood and dialogue amongst arpilleristas — the women who create them. The exhibition features a short documentary showing the women of Lota holding an arpillera workshop for the disappeared coal town of Pilpilco.
Novoa began working with members of the Chilean organization that produced the arpilleras, Mesa Ciudadana de Patrimonio, Cultura y Turismo de Lota, about 10 years ago.
Through collaborating with the organization, Novoa said she found differences between what the community and government of Lota valued as heritage.
There were a number of places designated as national monuments by the Chilean government, recognizing Lota’s history of industrial development and labor movements, specifically relating to coal mining. However, Novoa said the narratives attached to these often erased women’s role and ignored the precarious conditions of mining.
According to Novoa, she and Mesa Ciudadana sought a way to document and preserve these histories, and decided to use arpilleras to do this in the exhibition.
As a Chilean woman herself, Novoa said her collaboration with the textile makers was life-changing, teaching her many valuable lessons and changing the way she views her career.
“They have taught me how to keep doing the work with them, while also bringing their voices into the U.S. academia to show how global our issues are and how global solidarity can also be,” Novoa said. “So it has also given me a lot of hope, especially in this moment when we are surrounded by so many crises. They are the force that keeps me going in a way.”
Novoa said that because arpilleras are relatively easy to construct and minimal skill is needed, the exhibition is a good way to connect with art and storytelling that is accessible to everyone.
In conjunction with the exhibition, the Climate Jobs Institute and KAM are presenting a panel Friday from 12-1:30 p.m., exploring how communities that once relied on coal are shaping their post-industrial futures. KAM curator of modern and contemporary art Amy Powell said audiences will gain further context for the similarities between coal mining histories of Chile and the Midwest.
Panelists will include Novoa, as well as grassroots activists, community leaders and scholars from Illinois, Ohio and the Biobío region of Chile, including the president of Mesa Ciudadana.
Emily Guske, research specialist at the Climate Jobs Institute, has done extensive work with Illinois coal workers. She works closely with Novoa and other campus and community organizations on the Illinois Coal Workers & Communities Listening Project.
The project documents the impacts of coal plant and mine closures in Illinois, explores the cultural heritage of coal, and helps to inform policies that better support workers and communities when closures occur.
There are many similarities in how communities are impacted by these closures across geographical borders, according to Guske. These impacts can include job loss and environmental impacts such as coal ash and abandoned mine lands.
Although the community members featured on the panel from Illinois and Chile speak different languages, Guske said that the collectivity seen in the exhibition transcends this obstacle.
“Even with that sort of language barrier, there’s so many connections that are made that the language isn’t even required,” Guske said.
Powell met Novoa around the time that she started her work with the women of Lota, and became involved with the exhibition after Novoa approached her with the idea.
Many of the arpilleras depict the hardships and suffering of coal mining. Powell said she wants audiences to not only recognize this, but to also see the transnational connection between the histories of Lota and Illinois, as both share a deep history of relying on the coal industry.
“Mining is a hard industry and a brutal industry that historically has extracted child and animal labor,” Powell said. “At the same time, there’s so much brightness and aliveness and a sense of community and collectivity.”
Overall, Novoa wants the exhibition to give people a sense of hope, which she thinks is a central theme.
“I think it’s very important to look for spaces that give you hope,” Novoa said. “This exhibition in particular is an exhibition about hardship but also hope.”
