Brazilian women use textile art to document the impact of dams and fight for socio-environmental justice.
Coletivo Nacional de Mulheres do MAB, Tratores famintos, 2014. Photo: Filipe Berndt
From April 11 to August 3, 2025, the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) presents ‘Women Affected by Dams: Embroidering Our Rights’, an exhibition of 34 arpilleras created by the Coletivo Nacional de Mulheres do Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB). Made in embroidery circles by women across Brazil, these textile works serve as visual testimonies of lives altered by dam construction, operation, and collapse.
Rooted in the tradition of Chilean arpilleras—developed initially under the Pinochet dictatorship by women resisting authoritarian violence—these Brazilian adaptations use fabric and thread to address issues such as displacement, environmental degradation, domestic violence, and lack of access to basic infrastructure. Since 2013, MAB women have transformed embroidery into a form of activism, combining protest with the preservation of memory.
Curated by Glaucea Helena de Britto and Isabella Rjeille, the exhibition is part of MASP’s annual Histories of Ecology programme. Displayed chronologically, the works span a decade, from 2014 to 2024, and are contextualised by handwritten letters stored in pockets on the back of each piece. These letters offer personal reflections from the women who stitched them, six of which are on view in the exhibition.
“For many people, the arpillera may seem like just a piece of art to hang on the wall,” says MAB activist Daiane Höhn. “For us, the political significance lies in the organisation of women, in the fight for their rights and in the political proposition—of dreams, of utopias, of what we long for. It’s a denunciation, but it’s also a project of hope.”
The Coletivo Nacional de Mulheres do MAB was formed to amplify the voices of women most affected by socio-environmental disasters. Through artistic production and political action, they address the gendered impact of dam projects, climate change, and displacement. Their embroidered works not only denounce injustice but also foster solidarity and agency within communities.
As part of the public programme, MASP will host two embroidery workshops led by MAB activists. The first will take place on April 12 and the second on April 27, both from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. These sessions invite visitors to engage directly with the techniques and narratives at the heart of the arpilleras.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue featuring essays by Roberta Bacic, Monise Vieira Busquets, and Carolina Caycedo, as well as an interview with Daiane Höhn, Esther Vital, and Louise Löbler. It includes images of 47 arpilleras and critical texts that situate each piece within the broader context of struggles for environmental and human rights.
‘Women Affected by Dams: Embroidering Our Rights’ is on view at the Mezzanine Gallery of the Lina Bo Bardi building. The show forms part of a broader institutional effort to spotlight ecological histories through exhibitions featuring artists such as Abel Rodríguez, Clarissa Tossin, and Frans Krajcberg.
All MASP exhibitions are fully accessible, with accommodations including Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), descriptive texts, enlarged captions, and audiovisual materials in clear, easy-to-understand language. For more information, please visit masp.org.
