warmi küyen textile collective

“100 Butterflies For The Eradication of Gender Violence”

Appliqué on cotton, composed of fabric and felt scraps, assembled and unified through detailed hand embroidery

400×250cm

Designed and collectively embroidered by a women-led textile collective, this arpillera brings together more than 120 butterflies, each stitched by participants across 16 political textile workshops. Held between November 2024 and March 2025 in cities throughout the Netherlands, these gatherings created spaces for shared reflection, dialogue, and collective action against gender-based violence worldwide. Each butterfly bears the trace of an individual hand, while the textile as a whole speaks to a broader, interconnected struggle.

The work draws on two powerful traditions of feminist resistance. The first is the Chilean arpillera: a form of political textile art that emerged under Augusto Pinochet’s civil-military dictatorship (1973–1990), when women used fabric, thread, and found materials to denounce state violence, disappearance, and repression in contexts where speech was censored. The second is the symbol of the butterflies, evoking the memory of the Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic, Patria, Minerva, and María Teresa, who were known as Las Mariposas (“The Butterflies”) and were assassinated in 1960 for their resistance to Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship (1930–1961).

By weaving together these histories, the arpillera becomes both a memorial and a living archive: it honors past struggles while situating contemporary acts of making within a global continuum of feminist resistance. The multiplicity of hands involved underscores a central message: resistance is collective, care is political, and even the most delicate forms can carry enduring force.

2025