The Resistance of The Textiles

The exhibition is based on the research and findings of the Bolivian VUB PhD-student in Law, Maria Isabel Rojas, who investigated the cultural rights of indigenous people in Bolivia. Her research shows how in the Bolivian Jalq’a communities weaving and wearing ceremonial textiles have been transmitted from generation to generation and by doing so contributed to the preservation and continuation of their cultural identity. The exhibition demonstrates that weaving and wearing ceremonial textiles are ritualized collective practices that go beyond technical skills and performances to express, transmit and strengthen the cosmological worldview and commonalities of the indigenous Jalq’a culture in Sucre and Potosí. Visitors of the exhibition will be invited to reflect on wearing clothes to express and preserve cultural identity as a Human Right.