Meet at Plaza de Armas in Ciudad Juarez at 9am this Saturday the 8th of March to protest against “15 years of Assassinations, Impunity and Indolence against the Women of Juarez and Chihuahua”.
To focus the world’s attention on the femicides in Juárez, The Station Museum of Contemporary Art, in Houston, Texas, has dedicated their upcoming exhibition, Frontera 450+, opening Oct. 21, 2006, to the Women of Juárez, inviting artists to reflect on the situation. By Lise Bjorne.
My contribution is the installation Desconocida Unknown Ukjent, a work made up of hundreds of small labels, hand embroidered with each of the dead and missing young woman‘s names. To greatly increase the number of countries informed of the atrocities, I have asked citizens, majority women, in over a dozen countries worldwide to contribute, gathering in small groups to discuss the situation in Juárez as they embroider, label by label, the names of the dead and missing women.
My intention with this project has been to set women’s fight on the agenda through a traditionally female activity: embroidery. Embroidery is an intimate and time-consuming activity, and historically, women have embroidered the names of their loved ones onto such labels.
In this project, multiple women’s traces are crossing symbolically. Visually the embroidered label contains traces of the woman embroidering, through her handwriting, her choice of colours, stitches, etc. I also believe the dead woman’s name has left a trace with the embroiderer through the time and care she had to use in order to embroider, while simultaneously hearing the stories of individual girls and women.
I am engaged by the strength in women’s fight, and especially so by the strength in the mother’s fight in Juárez. Through their organizing and untiring fight for justice and worthiness, the world got to know and can support them. The women in Juárez have been described as voiceless. They are not. Women are not. Expression for strength and courage can be expressed even without words, using precisely the voice.
I hope to include a performance and a sound piece with the installation, based on the voices of the participants in this project.
Participants in following countries as of August 31st: Australia, Argentina, Costa Rica (2 groups), Denmark, Finland, Iran, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway (8 groups spread out throughout the country), Philippines (2 groups), Spain, Sweden (2 groups), United Kingdom (2 groups), United States (Alaska, Kentucky, New Mexico, Texas (3 groups))
Invitation to be part of the project
This project is still open to participate in and will continue to be so also after the exhibition has opened.
If you are interested please contact me through email:
There will be no expenses participating. All needed materials and information about Juárez will be covered by me, including prepaid envelope to send the labels back to me.
The embroidered labels will be used in another project of raising awareness for the women of Juárez, after the exhibition close down. The labels will be sewed into clothes, and both raise money for the mothers and continue to spread awareness.
More information about this part of the project will be on my website www.lisebjorne.com in a few weeks.
