Process // Things Our Bodies Remember About the Thread Factory

Process​

For a whole year, La Trama, the culture, education and territory programme of Fabra i Coats: Contemporary Art Centre of Barcelona, curated by Transductores, has worked with a group of former workers from Fabra i Coats when it was a textile factory, the Adult Education Centre Pegaso and in the company of dance group La Poderosa.

The Art Centre began this long-running project to give a voice to the stories and memories of the women who used to work at Fabra i Coats, intending to gather everything that isn’t explained in its official history. To do so, a shared research process was carried out with people and organisations in Sant Andreu, which focused on memories and documents about everyday life at the factory, such as the repetitive movements of winding and patching or the sounds of the machines... as well as many other things we don't know about factory life.

During the meetings, experiences were shared and feelings and gestures were addressed that connect with these memories. We also appropriated objects that today inhabit the exhibition room. We recalled the movement that the workers made to when working on nets, the weaver’s knot with which they repaired the yarn over various generations and the knot they tied around their waists when they were winding. We also covered other gestures that have remained in their memories: the last thing they did on the day they were made redundant, the expression on the faces of the bosses when they arrived at the factory or the quick movement to hide the radio headphone they had so that they could listen to the music they liked while working.

Participants: members from the Adult Education Centre Pegaso, Friends of Fabra i Coats Association. In addition to Andrea Corachán, director of La Trama, as of the first meeting, the group was accompanied in an artistic sense by Mònica Muntaner, co-founder of La Poderosa. ​

Dates of realization: October 2020 - November 2021

Public presentation: during Hacer Historias IV cicle (November 2021) and Festa Major de Sant Andreu.