LIKE A FLASH OF BRILLIANCE By Emilia Casiva
According to Mónica Millán, the simplest of stitches, the most fundamental element of sewing, is the stitch that holds everything together while preparing a new fabric. It is called the basting stitch or tack, and it is the stitch that supports the design. If it works, it is because its existence is merely temporary, and because it is practically invisible. It is a spider’s web; its thinness gives it a fragile appearance that belies its tenacity. The basting must be soft yet firm, like all it binds, all it supports. Mónica Millán was born in the old town of San Ignacio, Misiones, next to that dazzling jungle, and she has come and gone from there over the years. The colours, sounds, air and humidity of the jungle have marked her life and work, so much so that the latter is nourished, more than by a botanical method, by the wisdom of the living, by the time between the stitches that grow slowly, measuredly, or the softness of the cotton that weaves the image, and also by the violence of the needle piercing and making the bud explode. The landscape in her works is not a ‘theme’ but a sense. Her works show that, like the threads on the backside of an embroidery, everything moves and becomes entangled in the dense jungle. Let’s have a look.
Apparitions Millán carried out a long-term project between 2002 and 2012 that she called El
vértigo de lo lento [The Vertigo of Slowness]. It began with a trip to Yataity del Guairá, a village in Paraguay that is renowned for its Ao Po’i weaving. Ao Po’i is the Guaraní word for ‘fine cloth or delicate garment’ and it is a cotton weaving technique. One day, Digna, one of the village weavers, showed Mónica a cotton bud she had brought with her from her back garden. She opened it with both hands and began
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