Textus – An Exploration on Texts and Textiles

Tex­tus – An Explo­ration on Texts and Tex­tiles departs from the shared ety­mol­o­gy of ​“text” and ​“tex­tile,” both root­ed in the Latin tex­tus, mean­ing ​“thing woven.” Led by anthro­pol­o­gist Amalia Uribe Guardi­o­la, par­tic­i­pants will explore the inter­con­nec­tions between writ­ing and weav­ing — how sto­ries and mem­o­ries are thread­ed through lan­guage and cloth. Draw­ing from Latin Amer­i­can poet­ry and tex­tile prac­tices, par­tic­i­pants will engage with words and mate­ri­als to con­sid­er how texts are knit­ted and tex­tiles writ­ten. How can we read tex­tiles? Unweave texts? What is the role of unmak­ing in understanding?

The work­shop begins with a col­lec­tive unthread­ing of fab­ric and reflec­tion on per­son­al con­nec­tions to texts and tex­tiles. We’ll engage with pho­tographs of Chilean arpilleras and Colom­bian chumbes to dis­cuss how tex­tiles can be read as cul­tur­al and polit­i­cal texts. Par­tic­i­pants will then embroi­der a word, sym­bol, or image of their choice. No expe­ri­ence required; all mate­ri­als pro­vid­ed. The ses­sion ends with reflec­tion and clos­ing remarks.

This work­shop is orga­nized and facil­i­tat­ed by Dan­ny Valera, Intern at Res­i­den­cy Unlim­it­ed, as part of her ongo­ing research and cura­to­r­i­al inter­ests in par­tic­i­pa­to­ry prac­tices and cross-cul­tur­al dialogue.

Free Work­shop lim­it­ed to 15 par­tic­i­pants. RSVP required.

Res­i­den­cy Unlim­it­ed is one of the 2025 Gov­er­nors Island Arts Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence.