Hilos/Threads: Appropriating the public space through collective weaving and grieving in the context of feminicide in Mexico

Abstract

Through a decolonial feminist lens this paper unpacks the artistic project Sangre de mi sangre (“blood of my blood”). understood as an art protest by the feminist Mexican art collective Colectiva Hilos (“threads collective”). This work situates Sangre de mi sangre in the history of feminist textile artistic interventions, and specifically within those interventions that aim to take the public space in the context of gender violence. The work of Colectiva Hilos is also socio-politically situated in the history of Latin American political artistic interventions in the context of extreme forms of violence such as feminicide (killing of women because of their gender) and forced disappearance, and forms part of a plural and vibrant feminist movement present across the region. The members of the collective seek to repair the social fabric through collective weaving while using this long red textile to make visible the absences of those who have been victims of disappearance and feminicide in Mexico. Violence is an experience that has meant a fracture of our relations. This is also a painful experience. Where there is pain, there is loss and the need for grieving. This work considers decolonial thinker Rolando Vázquez’s (2018) ideas on healing and grieving to unpack the power of repair in the work of Colectiva Hilos.