by Kat Sark
Colectivo Malvestidas (Poorly Dressed Collective) is an activist group founded by Tamara Poblete and Loreto Martínez in Santiago, Chile in 2016 with a focus on fashion, clothing, and the body seen through a decolonial lens. Since 2017 their activist projects include Moda Desobediente (Disobedient Fashion), an annual transdisciplinary event in which academics, artists, designers and researchers from all over the world gather together to take part in activities that involve thinking about Latin America as a place of research and experiences (hosted at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago), as well as many other workshops, exhibitions, publications, and provocations to raise critical awareness of different approaches to decoloniality, fashion, and clothing.
Their Manifesto states:
"We believe that by putting disobedience as a liberating practice at the heart of the discussion, clothing can be thought of as not just a powerful weapon of authority and control, but also of empowerment and subversion."
Colectivo Malvestidas: Loreto Martínez and Tamara Poblete. Performative provocation to "Decolonize European Decoloniality'' at the De-Fashion Education Conference in Berlin, September 2023, photos by K. Sark
Their performative provocation to “Decolonize European Decoloniality” at the De-Fashion Education Conference in Berlin in September 2023 involved audience (primarily white and European) participation to unwind two sides of their knitted ponchos with the words “Colonial Wound” in English and “Herida Colonial” in Spanish written across the front and back of the garments.
The yarn was pulled by various conference participants while the activists presented a text about the need to decolonize European decoloniality - drawing awareness to the fact that decolonial practices in education, museums, and industry should be collaborative and not one-sided; that there are different Global Souths with different histories, colonial legacies, and creativity that is still not recognized in the Global North; and that decoloniality is everyone’s collective and collaborative responsibility.
The unwound yarn was then used collectively to create a banner with the words “Re.exist” stitched onto it with the use of the bright pink and yellow yarn from the unwound “colonially-coded” garments. As Tamara Poblete explained, “Existir” means to “live” or “exist,” and “re-exist” would mean “to come back to life.” They use this word under the premise that the process of colonization “dehumanizes” the existence of the colonized people, and propose that decolonization would “re-humanise” everyone, in other words, allow people to “re-exist”. They put the prefix “Re” separately to accentuate this idea and also for aesthetic purposes. This collaborative transformation literally translated their call to action into a creative project and collective practice.
The participatory element was powerful because it mobilized and engaged the primarily white and European audience in dismantling a symbol of colonial legacy. Similar to the toppling of racist and colonial statues and monuments around the world in the aftermath of the global Black Lives Matter protests and demonstration, the direct action to make the dismantling of colonial symbolism not only visible but also participatory had a stronger impact than just watching a performative provocation or listening to the decolonial call to action.
And finally, collectively making something new out of the unwound yarn forced the participants not only to reflect but also intentionally engage with a de-colonial project based on creativity, activism, and collective action. It showed empowerment and creativity in the service of decolonial activism in practice.
Tamara Poblete is a researcher in fashion studies, curator, and cultural manager.
For seven years she has worked as an arts projects manager at the British Council in Chile. Currently completing her PhD in the History of Design Department at the Royal College of Arts, she also holds a Master’s degree in Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship with a minor in Design from Goldsmiths University of London. Her current research focuses on the resignification of clothing as privileged tools of protest in contemporary feminist movements in Latin America from 2015 to date.
Loreto Martínez is a theater designer, curator, and producer, with a BA in Theatre Design from the University of Chile, as well as diplomas in Theory and History of Art and Sociology of the Body. Her Master’s degree is in Theatre, Film, Opera and Audiovisual Costume Design from the Istituto Europeo di Design in Barcelona. Her interests include the research, creation, and dissemination of critical cultural material that problematize gender, class, identity, and territory from transdisciplinary and collaborative methodologies applied to the body, the wearable, and performance practices.
You can find their activist work on Instagram: @colectivo_malvestidas and on their website. And you can watch the provocation recorded on the conference website: UdK Berlin.