Ayer recibí este mail!!!!
Dear Cecilia,
Dear Cecilia,
Congratulations! Your quilt BUENOS AIRES. VILLA 31. has been selected for inclusion in the special exhibit Tactile Architecture 2011. We received many exceptional entries for this edition of the exhibit, which will premiere at International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston . Ultimately 31 quilts were chosen. The exhibit will also travel in 2012 to various International Quilt Festival and Market sponsored shows.
Que traduciendo significa que mi quilt "BUENOS AIRES. VILLA 31" fue seleccionado para exhibirse en el Festival Internacional de Houston en Noviembre 2011 y en dos Festivales en 2012, como parte de una muestra especial dedicada a la Arquitectura junto con otros 30 quilts.
Qué puedo decir??? Estoy feliz!!!
Este es el texto que acompañará al quilt en la exhibición
Since 1930, in a central and fashionable area of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, a shantytown called “VILLA 31” has been growing. Throughout its lifetime this slum has had its share of ups and downs, tied mostly to political mood swings in the country.
On several occasions, it has been dismantled. During the military dictatorship, bulldozers were sent in to tear it apart, only to have the squatters return shortly afterward to rebuild it.
Every day, local and foreign migrant workers climb over fences, enter the shantytown and hastily put up fragile new walls, or add a precarious additional floor level to constructions that are already shoddily built. In this “Villa”, today there are already many feebly constructed six-story buildings on the verge of tumbling down.
Behind the Villa, along the horizon, one of the most expensive and elegant neighborhoods of the city is clearly visible. The imposing and modern tall buildings from this district form a sharp contrast to the poverty of the slum.
One day, as I was sewing my own hand-dyed leftovers, without a clearly defined purpose, I noticed that “crooked buildings” were emerging from my machine. I realized that I was constructing something much in the same haphazard way in which people were building their houses in the Villa 31: by improvising and using leftovers.
The overlaying of the quilts symbolizes the vulnerability of the slum and the ease with which it could be removed at any moment.
Today more than 80,000 people live in this slum. The houses are painted with different colors and the neighborhood’s construction has become an iconic image of Buenos Aires. So much so, that it has even become a stop on our double-decker city bus tour.
EN ESPAÑOL
Desde 1930 crece en una zona céntrica de la ciudad de Buenos Aires (Argentina) un asentamiento habitacional llamado VILLA 31, que corrió distintas suertes en cada momento histórico del país.
En varias oportunidades, la villa fue desmantelada. En época de dictadura, se mandaron topadoras para borrarla del mapa, pero en poco tiempo los expulsados volvieron.
Cada día migrantes nacionales o extranjeros vulneran los cercos, se introducen en la villa y levantan una pared o agregan un tambaleante piso a construcciones de por sí frágiles. Hay en ella edificios de seis pisos, tambaleantes como castillos de naipes, al borde del derrumbe.
Detrás de la Villa, a lo largo del horizonte, está visible una de las zonas más caras y elegantes de la ciudad. Los altos e imponentes edificios contrastan definitivamente con la pobreza del asentamiento.
Yo estaba cosiendo los restos de tela teñidas de otro quilt sin un destino planeado cuando empezaron a fluir de mi máquina de coser, estos edificios “torcidos” y me dí cuenta de que estaba “construyendo” del mismo modo que se edifican las casas en la Villa 31: Improvisando y con restos.
La superposición de quilts, simboliza la vulnerabilidad del barrio y la facilidad con la que podría ser removido en cualquier momento.
Actualmente viven allí más de 80000 personas. Las casas están pintadas de distintos colores y se convirtió en ícono de Buenos Aires. Tanto que se ha incorporado como una parada más del Bus Turístico.