Digital illustrated book “(Un)Stitching Gazes: Spinning, embroidering, and mending reconciliation in Colombia” (bilingual: Spanish/English)

Book by Berit Bliesemann De Guevara

After decades of armed conflict and the peace agreement of 2016, how can Colombians (re-)author their lives in order to live on? How can former guerrillas of the FARC, their families, their victims, their new rural neighbours, and society at large live together again? These are the questions explored by the research project “(Un-) Stitching Gazes” (Newton Fund, (https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FR01373X%2F1). It was carried out by researchers at the Universities of Aberystwyth (UK) and Antioquia (Colombia). The project team used textile-making, embroidery and narrative interviews to explore everyday micro-processes of reconciliation. They worked in two rural communities now hosting the demobilised fighters in the Department of Antioquia: Llano Grande (Dabeiba) and San José de León (Mutatá). The textile narratives resulting from these engagements form the core of the illustrated book “(Un) Stitching Gazes / (Des) Tejiendo Miradas”. It invites us to reflect what assumptions we un-stitch or re-stitch when we get to know those living the peace process every day through their textile narratives.

To receive a fee copy of the PDF of this book by email, fill in the online form here.