Arpilleras de Wellington: los hilos de la memoria, un allá cercano y un pasado contemporáneo

Abstract

This text proposes a political reflection about the creative practice of the Wellington Arpilleras, a collec-tive of Latin American women arpilleristas, living in Aotearoa New Zealand. This inquiry about the Wellington Arpilleras propounds a way of “reading” their practice, by bringing forward the ethical and political nature of those group’s interventions that transit along spaces often reserved to art, academia and community. To articulate this reflection, it is necessary to recall the particular notion of contempo-raneity proposed by Giorgio Agamben. Thus, Agam-ben’s questions “‘Of whom and of what are we con-temporaries?’ And, first and foremost, ‘What does it mean to be contemporary?’” are the starting point this inquiry into Wellington Arpilleras practice, from an ethical-political perspective.