Una mirada sobre Barroco Ao Po'i de Mónica Millán, en W-Galería con curaduría de Carla Barbero

Mónica Millán; Leonora Concepción Borja; Yessica Beatriz Careaga Subeldia; Carmen Mabel  Martínez; Mariela Raquel Portillo Mercado; María Cecilia Peralta López; Raquel Meaurio Denis; Nilsa Estela Cristaldo; Petrona Martínez; Eusebia Garcete; Toribia Goiris Yegros; Carla Barbero; Ivana Salemi

Authors

Mónica Millán W-Gallery
Leonora Concepción Borja Bordadoras de Yataity
Yessica Beatriz Careaga Subeldia Bordadoras de Yataity
Carmen Mabel Martínez Bordadoras de Yataity
Mariela Raquel Portillo Mercado Bordadoras de Yataity
María Cecilia Peralta López Bordadoras de Yataity
Raquel Meaurio Denis Bordadoras de Yataity
Nilsa Estela Cristaldo Bordadoras de Yataity
Petrona Martínez Bordadoras de Yataity
Eusebia Garcete Bordadoras de Yataity
Toribia Goiris Yegros Bordadoras de Yataity
Carla Barbero Recoleta Cultural Center
Ivana Salemi Center for Research in Contemporary Artistic Procedures (CI/PAC). School of Art and Heritage (EAyP). National University of San Martín (UNSAM).

Abstract

This contribution invites readers to explore, through texts, archival photographs, and gallery records, Mónica Millán's exhibition Barroco Ao Po’i (W Galería, Buenos Aires, 2023–2024), which encapsulates more than two decades of work with embroiderers from Yataity del Guairá (Paraguay). From complementary perspectives, the texts address Millán's practice as a network of relationships and situated knowledge. As an introduction, Ivana Salemi proposes a micro-political reading of the creative processes, in collaborations that transcend the categories of art and handicraft, where Ao Po’i embroidery operates as a sensitive practice and popular epistemology. Carla Barbero, in the exhibition's curatorial text, traces the poetic and territorial genealogy of the works and projects shared between Millán and the embroiderers of Yataity, focusing on the network of shared affections, memories, and knowledge. We invite readers to delve into these previously unseen images of the work in the field and the gallery installation, which, accompanied by Barbero's curatorial narrative, offer glimpses into the elusive nature of these sensitive practices. Community work, the inside and outside of the workshop, the social fabric of a people whose identity struggles to remember and maintain subjective and communal histories through artisanal knowledge and its reinterpretations within the contemporary art scene.

Author Biographies

Mónica Millán, W-Gallery

Born in San Ignacio Misiones in 1960. Lives and works between Argentina and Paraguay. Received the grants from the Antorchas Fund, the National Fund for the Arts and the Rockefeller Fund. In 2000 I obtained the Beca Trama to participate in works analysis and comparison workshops. I have carried out residencies in Canada and Italy. Since 2002, he has currently been working in Paraguay with a community of screenwriters, advised by essayist and art critic Ticio Escobar, founder and director of the Museo de Arte Indígena del Centro de Artes Visuales de Asunción. His work on the recovery, identification and recreation of traditional fabrics allowed him to generate a very fruitful link between artistic creation, popular crafts and plastic language. Among its main exhibitions, the following stand out: Thread to the South, ISLAA, (Nueva York, 2024), Spin a Yarn, Guild Hall, (Nueva York, 2024), Guyra Ka’aguy / Pájaro Salvaje, Fundación Santander, (Buenos Aires, 2024), Spin a yarn, Another Space (Nueva York, 2023); Barroco Ao Poí, W-galería (Buenos Aires, 2023); Ao Episodios textiles en el Paraguay, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, (2022); Trama Sinfónica, Museo Marco La Boca (Buenos Aires, 2021); Paisaje Peregrino - Bustos Del Rio Millán, Museo de Arte Moderno Buenos Aires (2021); Symbolology. Artistic practices on an emerging planet, Plantío Rafael Barrett, Centro Cultural Kirchner (Buenos Aires, 2021); Notes and some flowers, Galería Palatina (Buenos Aires, 2019); Interferences, National Museum of Fine Arts (Buenos Aires, 2016); El nacimiento de los colors, Galería Oscar Cruz (San Pablo, 2012); Tales of resistance and change, Frankfurter Kunstverein, (Frankfurt, 2010); El río bord(e)ado, La Línea Piensa, Centro Cultural Borges, (Buenos Aires, 2009); Jardín de Resonancias, Museo de Arte Moderno (Buenos Aires, Argentina 2002) among others. He has received numerous awards in Argentina and abroad and has participated in numerous biennials.

Leonora Concepción Borja, Bordadoras de Yataity

I was born in the city of Villarrica, Paraguay on December 15, 1991. I have a seven-year-old son. I live in my in-laws' house in Yataity del Guairá. I learned to embroider when I was seven years old, with the help of my mother; she taught me.

Yessica Beatriz Careaga Subeldia, Bordadoras de Yataity

I was born in Yataity del Guairá, Paraguay on February 2, 1997. I have a degree in Business Administration and I am a consultant for the company Alex S.A. I live with my parents. I learned to embroider at the age of seven with my mother; there are two sisters in my family, and I am the youngest. I love to embroider, to be inspired by embroidery, and I hope that Ao Po'i will always be valued as the finest work in Paraguay.

Carmen Mabel Martínez, Bordadoras de Yataity

I was born in Yataity del Guayrá, Paraguay, on July 16, 1986. My main activity is embroidery. I currently live in Puesto Ka'aguy, Santa Rita neighborhood. I have three beautiful children.

Mariela Raquel Portillo Mercado, Bordadoras de Yataity

I was born in Félix Pérez Cardozo, Paraguay, on May 16, 1985. When I was two years old, my parents moved to Yataity del Guairá. There, my mother began learning the different stitches of Ao Po'i embroidery and later taught them to her daughters. I started embroidering when I was seven, initially making simple lace patterns. I have a degree in Business Administration and Accounting. Currently, I've returned to the world of handicrafts to be able to dedicate myself full-time to my four- and two-year-old children.

María Cecilia Peralta López, Bordadoras de Yataity

I was born in Villarica, Paraguay, on December 9, 1993. I am the daughter and niece of Pablina López and Digna López, two long-time weavers from the town of Yataity in Guairá. I am thirty years old. My current job is weaving authentic Ao Po'í fabric. In my free time, I dedicate myself to all kinds of embroidery.

Raquel Meaurio Denis, Bordadoras de Yataity

Nascida em Villarrica del Guairá, Paraguai, em 1971. Moro em Yataity, no bairro Puesto Ka'aguy, e me dedico ao artesanato têxtil; gosto de criar novos pontos de bordado. Trabalho em casa para sustentar meu filho; sou mãe de um menino de dezesseis anos.

Nilsa Estela Cristaldo, Bordadoras de Yataity

Born in Asunción, Paraguay. I grew up in Yataity del Guairá, Paraguay on August 19, 1980. I learned to embroider eight years ago with my mother, Dorotea Segovia and later helped me pay for my teacher studies in Bilingual Education (castellano and guaraní) in the city of Villarrica, currently I am the mother of three children and myself I dedicate it to Ao Po'i embroidery. I do everything a little while embroidering.

Petrona Martínez, Bordadoras de Yataity

Born on September 9, 1940 in Yataity del Guairá del Paraguay. I started working with cotton for five years of age and continued for eight years and four years of age. I'm a widow, I have two children, seven children still alive, I go to primary school until fifth grade. I dedicate myself to encaje jú (encaje aguja, in Guaraní). I'm the main encajera of the pueblo.

Eusebia Garcete, Bordadoras de Yataity

Born in the city of Mbocayaty del Guairá, Paraguay on July 28, 1963, I currently live in the city of Yataity del Guairá, I am an artisan of the authentic Ao Po'i. As a peasant I am planting and experimenting with four colors of cotton: white, red, ruby and green.

Toribia Goiris Yegros, Bordadoras de Yataity

Born on May 16, 1973 in Barrio Alegre de Yataity del Guairá, Paraguay. I learned to embroider as a child when I came to my mother. Ella no lee ni write. I am the second daughter of six brothers. Four women and two men. My mother and I worked together to keep our brothers and send them to school. I don't have any studies, but I don't consider myself illiterate because I only read and write. I have three male children. My daily livelihood is embroidery work. There is barely time that prevents me from doing it with total joy and tranquility. Each drawing serves me as a challenge to overcome. The embroidery makes me feel fulfilled in being able to support my home with dignity.

Carla Barbero, Recoleta Cultural Center

She is a curator and teacher. He is currently leading the visual arts program at the Recoleta Cultural Center, together with Javier Villa. She is a professor of the subject of Curaduría and Exposiciones in the orientation Artes de la Licenciatura en Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, where she also coordinates the Taller de Curaduría of the Department of Art. Asimism, dictates Curatorial Practices at the Faculty of Arts of the National University of Córdoba. Between 2017 and 2022 I was head of the Curatorial Department of the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, an institution that held retrospective exhibitions dedicated to Delia Cancela, Elda Cerrato, Max Gómez Canle and Alberto Goldenstein, as well as projects with Mónica Millán, Adriana Bustos and Claudia del Rio. special projects in other institutions, such as Fabril la mirada, exhibition by Lucrecia Lionti in MALBA. His tour includes the curation of the Museo de las Mujeres de Córdoba (2012-2015), the creation of the Programa de Promoción a la Investigación en Artes (2011) and the coordination of the Programa de Artes Visuales para el Fondo Nacional de las Artes and the Ministerio de Cultura de la Nación (2014-2016). She is the author of several books and publications on contemporary Argentine art and artists, including monographs, critical essays and institutional editions. His work is characterized by putting into dialogue artistic experimentation with historical and social contexts, as well as by developing curatorial projects that seek to expand the notion of exhibition as a space for collective thought.

Ivana Salemi, Center for Research in Contemporary Artistic Procedures (CI/PAC). School of Art and Heritage (EAyP). National University of San Martín (UNSAM).

She has a degree in Political Science (UBA) and a transdisciplinary visual artist trained in artist workshops, clinics and residencies. She is currently studying Masters in Culture Management (UDESA) and works as a teacher-researcher at the Centro de Investigación en Procedimientos Artísticos Contemporáneos (CI-PAC) of the School of Art and Heritage of the National University of San Martín (EAyP-UNSAM). Since 2014, he has been part of the team at the Asociación Civil Surcos Patagónicos alongside those who develop projects that seek to strengthen productive and associative capacities in communities of artisanal textiles and rural producers. Since 2022, the Fibras project (Kenneth Kemble Prize 2022) has been promoted, which investigates the artisanal production of fabrics with natural fibers and dyes made by rural women from the Argentine regions of Cuyo and Patagonia. He is interested in the knowledge transmission circuit present in these traditional technologies, and in the social, environmental and cultural care tasks involved in these practices. He is currently rehearsing forms of dialogue between craftsmanship and contemporary artistic practices, trying to blur impudent boundaries, seeking materialities to do so in common.

References

Barbero, Carla (2023). Texto curatorial de la exposición “Barroco Ao Po’i”. W Galería. Disponible en https://carlabarbero.ar/barroco-ao-poi/

Benjamin, Walter (2008). Tesis sobre la filosofía de la historia. En Walter Benjamin, Discursos interrumpidos I (J. Aguirre, Trad., pp. 175-191). Taurus. (Trabajo original publicado en 1940).

Escobar, Ticio (2004). El mito del arte y el mito del pueblo: cuestiones sobre arte popular. Fondo de Cultura Económica.