The struggle of women involves an individual awakening to be part of the construction of new worlds, a struggle that must be constant and collective always.

Sophia Arrazola

This participatory artwork is an altar, a living space, a tribute to our bodies, an effort to make ourselves visible and reclaim our right to live as free women, with dignity and autonomy.

The artwork commemorates the experiences of women who participated in the workshop “Embroidering Futures and Autonomies” led by Mi Calle, Nuestra Calle. It openly questions the societal castration imposed on our bodies, depriving us of control and stripping us of the possibility to enjoy and possess our own bodily territory.

Through a process of community curating, we together created a series of sculptural bodies made with personal garments of the women. Through embroidery and a process of building autonomy, these garments were re-signified and dignified, reclaiming the women’s right to decide.

The composition expresses the collective consciousness of women, emphasizing the recognition that we have a body and we occupy physical and societal space. We can no longer allow decisions about our bodies to be the result of social pressures. To empower ourselves and transform our social environment, we need to exert dominion over ourselves and make ourselves visible.

Through a ritual in which we invite our community to participate, we inaugurate the bodily territory that belongs to us, freeing ourselves from guilt and embracing our bodies as they are, without trying to force them to fit into the idealized commercialized body model. Whether fat or thin, we recognize that it is our body, it belongs to us, and that is the first step to liberating ourselves from the patriarchal system.