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This is the accepted version of a paper published in Architecture and Culture. This paperhas been peer-reviewed but does not include the final publisher proof-corrections or journalpagination.

Citation for the original published paper (version of record):

Burga, E., Olmos Dusant, M., Löfgren, I. (2017)Nuestras Madres: Forming Political Subjects en la mesaArchitecture and Culture, 5(3): 53-56https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2017.1367154

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This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francisin Architecture and Culture on 27 Oct 2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/20507828.2017.1367154

Permanent link to this version:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-39963

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ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE

Isabel LöfgrenAssociated Researcher, Latin American Institute, Stockholm University isabel.lofgren@gmail.com

Macarena Olmos DusantDepartment of Art History, Södertörns högskola macarenadusant@gmail.com

Estella BurgaDepartment of Fine Art, Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts & Design estellaburga@hotmail.com 

Volume 5/Issue 3 November 2017 pp 1–5 DOI: 10.1080/ 20507828.2017.1367154

Nuestras Madres: Forming political subjects en la mesaby IDA – Institutet för Diaspora och Avkolonisering/Institute for the Decolonization of ArtIsabel Löfgren, Macarena Olmos Dusant and Estella BurgaABSTRACT NUESTRAS MADRES is an artwork by the art collective IDA performed at the AHRA Architecture and Feminisms Conference (2016), which consisted of a collective ritual and a poetry reading. The ritual created a safe space where a group of participants sat around a table taking turns in sharing their stories about their mothers while embroidering their mothers’ names on a single tablecloth. These were synthesized into a poem and presented the following day. IDA investigates issues in private and public space connected to knowledge production and gender normativity. Even though the role of mothers and their knowledge is usually connected to the private sphere, the knowledge of our mothers and their mothers shared en la mesa - over the table - is important in the construction of political subjects. How has this knowledge helped us survive in society as women, queer, indigenous, working class, Muslim, immigrant - as human beings?

Supplemental MaterialA video file can be accessed at ‘Supplemental Material’: https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828.2017.1367154.

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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2 Nuestras madres taught me that motherhood is to co-exist, and is not an accident or an obligationWriting names with needle and yarn is a performative act that cuts through different temporalities. The ancient and slow medium of embroidery allows us to slow down into a reflective space away from a fragmented digital modernity. Each time the needle pierces the surface, the completed stitch helps us remember the impact of ongoing suppression on one end, and also the strategies of survival on the other. As a space, the ritual created a temporary collectivity, where each story became a cathartic element and a liberating experience.

Nuestras madres taught me that silence is not an optionOn the following day, IDA collected the words and stories shared over the table and wrote a poem which was read to the public by three voices taking turns with each other. The poem collects words and citations from the ritual synthesized into a specific format that conveys the element of collectivity and knowledge passed on from the mothers. In addition, the words and stories of the participants were interwoven with words from thinkers, writers, artists and historically significant women, such as Gloria Anzaldúa, Simone de Beauvoir, bell hooks, Frida Kahlo, Lilith, Audrey Lorde, Violeta Parra and others.

Nuestras madres taught me that there are many mothersIn some rituals, repetitive and monotone speech is the core of a calling to action. In the poem, repetition is used as a means to flatten speech hierarchies. It is also used to stress the multiplicity of voices of all mothers and also the singularity of each mother who addresses us in the first person. The refrain “Nuestras madres taught me…” is more connotative of advice than a top-down teaching. As such, this kind of informal knowledge is a knowledge that has to be spoken out loud and repeated over and over. Recalling and naming is about marking a presence, and is a way of not forgetting. At the end of the poem are the mothers’ names that were embroidered by their children during the ritual.

Nuestras madres taught me to slow down reading and listening, and pausing to understandWhile we read the poem, a film rolled in the background, showing a slow camera travelling over the fabric at close range, following each piece of material across the table to reveal bundles of yarn, stitched letters forming names, letter by letter, in a continuous movement with no cuts.

Nuestras madres taught me that I should determine my speed in life, when it begins or ends

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The daily discussions en la mesa are recurrent acts in the family life in today’s Abya Yala (called The Americas in more recent times). Even though the role and knowledge of mothers are usually connected with a specific gender and with the home and the private sphere, the knowledge of mothers and produced by mothers has an important role in the construction of political subjects. In patriarchal societies, these discussions are rarely seen as the political act they really are. Inspired by our own South American backgrounds, we wanted to highlight the collective construction of our political subjectivity by reenacting the recurring scenario of conversations across a table – where a range of stories, political discussions, and even gossip, family fights or survival strategies serve as foundations for becoming members of society.

The ritual is a sacred act that focuses energy and creates a togetherness. With a ritual as a starting point, IDA focused on private stories that are rarely acknowledged in the public sphere but which are part of a collective, albeit silent, narrative. We invited participants to sit together around a table covered with a tablecloth, and we offered each one a needle and yarn in different colors. We began by reading a text about a life lesson passed on by our mothers, and then encouraged each participant to embroider their own mother’s name on the fabric, while taking turns in speaking and listening to each other’s mother’s life lessons. A mother’s knowledge is both universal and singular and gives others courage to survive – as mothers who never wanted to become mothers, who resisted the obligations placed on motherhood, even beyond the strictly biological.

Figure 1This figure as well as the background image on the next double page was taken at the workshop Nuestras Madres. © Isabel Löfgren/IDA.

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