Commission and Creation
Beginning of summer 1972, Isla Negra
The Bordadoras de Isla Negra collective was invited to participate with a large-scale artwork to be displayed at the entrance to the main meeting room of the UNCTAD III Conference headquarters, which the Chilean government was constructing in Santiago. This large tapestry would be one of the 38 artworks created by Chilean artists to be featured in the new building, and it was supposed to depict the country’s natural production systems.
Leonor Sobrino called upon and led the 10 embroiderers who had the availability, as they only had three months to complete the project. She invited them to draw and embroider landscapes that were familiar and dear to them, featuring the sea, the land, and the trades they engaged in. This gave rise to depictions of fishing, planting, harvesting, family orchards, their homes and flowers, grape harvesting, vast wheat fields, agriculture, and livestock. There were also representations of a hydroelectric plant and life in a mining town.
Execution
Summer 1972, Isla Negra
The embroiderers first worked on the fabrics individually, as they always had, or embroidered in pairs. After joining the fabrics, they all gathered at Leonor Sobrino’s house to do the finishing touches, unifying the sky and the connections between the different parts.
It was such a beautiful time; I quickly left everything ready at home and headed to Mrs. Leo’s gallery at noon, and we embroidered and joined the fabrics until 6 in the afternoon, sometimes on our knees on the floor when we spread it out completely. As we were finishing, many came to collaborate, and when we finished and celebrated on Mrs. Leonor’s sand terrace, we sang, danced, and laughed a lot. It was a joyful summer for us!
Purísima Ibarra.
Inauguration UNCTAD III
Santiago, April 1972
They came to pick us up in several cars from Santiago. We all went, and Mrs. Leonor introduced us to people who seemed important. They greeted us with respect, congratulated us… It seems they really liked our embroidery!
Purísima Ibarra
Disappearance
Santiago, 1973
Mrs. Leo told us one day that they didn’t know anything about the whereabouts of the embroidery, that it had disappeared, and there was no trace of it. And so it was for a long time, we didn’t hear anything at all.
Narcisa Catalán
Silent Reapearance
Santiago, 2019
Strange and long time. The embroidery disappeared in 1973 and reappeared in mid-2019, cut into 4 parts. In the context of the reappearance of the Collective Embroidery, its authors were not informed, nor were they consulted about its possible fate.
As one embroiderer said in the face of this shameful omission: It’s because we’re from a rural place, we’re women, and on top of that, poor!
Narcisa Catalán
Reunion of Artwork and Authors
Isla Negra, May 2021
The reunion between the embroiderers and their artwork during the winter of 2020 was very emotional, amidst the health pandemic. The Collective Embroidery was laid out on the floor of a house in Isla Negra, where they discreetly and silently arrived, accompanied by close family members. The silence broke when they remembered the embroiderers who had already passed away and what each of them contributed to this great piece. Doña Pura wanted to repair those “bald spots in the wheat field” right there, exclaiming that she had a similar shade of yellow. Unforgettable were the words of Narcisa Catalán: How much malice, to hide and break something so beautiful! And a daughter of Rosa Santander commented: It’s very emotional, it impacts me a lot. It is the story of our childhood. This embroidery is part of our family stories and community stories.
Restoration
Paine, December 2021 to March 2022
Loving hands of professional women in textile restoration and conservation worked delicately on the embroidery for three months, to bring it back to life and protect its future. A silent labor of sisterhood that makes them proud and dignifies the authors.
Reunion With the Public
GAM, April 2022
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of the UNCTAD III Building, an event was held to pay tribute to all participants, including the artist embroiderers. Since that date, the Collective Embroidery has been on public display at the GAM (The Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center).
The Collective Embroidery Returns Home and Goes Out Into the World
Isla Negra, December 8, 2023 to January 7, 2024
Casa Museo Pablo Neruda
The Collective Embroidery returns home, to its place of origin, marking a significant return to honor its authors and the entire Isla Negra community. It will is exhibited for a month at the Casa Museo Isla Negra of the Neruda Foundation.
This great embroidery goes out to the world to be appreciated and to give us its beauty; during the summer of 2024, the exhibition would be at the Palacio Baburizza in Valparaíso, but its itinerancy was postponed to the summer of 2025, because the work participates in the main exhibition of the Venice Art Biennale, between April and October 2024.