The mountain as warp

In the project “The Mountain as Warp”, the artist imagines the Andean mountains as a large warp in which the Andean textile culture is interwoven and where modern mining intervenes.
Andean textiles are produced in reciprocal interaction with the mountains, their complex technology is understood beyond the loom. The process of weaving begins with the care of animals and the soil. Once materialized, the textiles have the capacity to connect the social, economic and spiritual dimensions of Andean societies and ecologies. Their geometric, symmetrical and modular designs are derived, at the same time from textile techniques and from the organization of production, e.g. irrigation systems and the distribution of cultivation in the soil (1).
Mining technology, on the other hand, follows the western division between man and nature. Through its mining tools such as drills and excavators, it develops a technology of separation and fascination with machines and engineering. Its production cycle leaves enormous traces in the geological material, such as cracks and burns. It dries out the soil and pollutes the waters of the diverse, multispecies ecologies of the Andes.
In “The mountain as warp” the artist develops a series of textile documents based on the intervention of industrial Awayos (2). Images of mining technology such as excavators, drills, trucks and their traces in the geography intervene in the designs of plants, animals and irrigation channels, transforming the history and body of the Awayo. The artist embroiders the geological wounds of the mountains and, at the same time, emphasizes in her work the complex textile technology of the Andes, which opposes, resists and merges with the technology of extraction.
Marcela Moraga grew up with technical drawings and photos of mining machines while her father repaired their damaged parts. She often accompanied her father to the mining sites and experienced the huge scale of this technology and the damage it causes.

(1) ”El textil tridimensional. La naturaleza del tejido como objeto y como sujeto” by Denise Arnold and Elvira Espejo (The three-dimensional textile. The nature of fabric as object and as a subject (2) Awayo is a type of textile produced by the Aymara and Quechua peoples, whose patterns have become mass-produced through industrial Awayos. For the artist, the industrial Awayo is a mestizo child of the Andean universe, it has been integrated, it is loved and participates at all times in the life of the indigenous and non-indigenous population.

Photos: OKNO Studio, Benjamin Renter and Claudia del Fierro

pdf text: The Textiles Have Not Stayed Silent: A conversation with Marcela Moraga about her textiles of extractivism
pdf publication: The Textiles Have Not Stayed Silent
A conversation between curator, researcher, author, and educator Paz Guevara and Marcela Moraga, text included in the final publication of the Villa Romana 2019 fellows.

“Los Tejidos no se han Callado” una conversación con Marcela Moraga sobre sus textiles del extractivismo Una conversación entre la curadora, investigadora, autora y educadora Paz Guevara y Marcela Moraga, texto incluido en la publicación final de los becarios de Villa Romana 2019.