TEXTILES AND INTANGIBLE HERITAGE

Textiles and Intangible Heritage are intimately linked. Both are part of rites, celebrations, folklore, art and culture of our peoples.

Clothing is full of special meaning, colorful costumes with decorative motifs that refer to the culture of that town or territory go for a walk during the festivities as a symbol of celebration of a society.

One of the most ancient celebrations in Galicia is the Carnival or "Entroido" as it is called in Galician. Specifically in the province of Ourense, the most linked to this party multiple expressions of popular intangible heritage are recorded as collected in the book "As caras do Entroido Ourensán" published by the Deputation of Ourense.

The "Boteiro" is a character of this ancestral carnival of the province of Ourense that I got to know a few months ago during a professional training that I gave to the women of this Galician high mountain village, Vilariño de Conso.

Their attire is handmade by the women of the village, although the costume is worn by men. Recently, women have conquered the honor of being "Boteiras". It isThis figurura represents the town during the Entroido celebration.o during the celebration of the Entroido and its task is to organize and direct the activities of the Carnival inviting everyone to enjoy the party. He is the host and main figure around which the festive celebration revolves.

Popular culture represented through textile crafts and clothing.   

His cheerful and colorful costume is composed of a shirt with hundreds of colored ribbons sewn by hand, gathered with a certain relief, and short pants to the knee. This traditional costume has an artistic air and is completed with leather boots and a belt with cowbells, a stick and a large mask. This mask is made of wood or cardboard with various colored paper motifs that look like "flowers" that upholster the upper part, almost like a large decorative tapestry. On the back hang colored ribbons that move when dancing.

This summer I visited Vilariño de Conso to share a training with the women of the area in reference to the recovery of the use of wool, a very popular material in these villages, as there were many flocks of sheep.

There I met the youngest "Boteiras" who told me that they are the ones who now wear this festive costume.

Throughout history, it has been women who have been responsible for transmitting and preserving our intangible heritage through songs and dances that were performed during tasks such as the preparation of wool and other textile crafts. These tasks such as popular festivities and folklore were shared in community, a social event that disseminated popular culture and where textiles collected this intangible heritage.  

There are multiple expressions linked to textiles and intangible heritage in Spain and internationally of this festival so closely linked to popular culture. These colorful ritual costumes represented the whole society and although each one made their own, they had common elements such as colored ribbons representing joy, spring and light. Ornamental and artistic motifs typical of each town, flowers, diamonds, animals make this popular costume unique.

During these months of shared knowledge I designed and created a collection of different handmade textiles and artistic tapestries inspired by the culture of wool, and these colorful and joyful textiles of popular festivals.

In these pieces of textile handicrafts the design of the textiles of the popular festivities is collected and also the experience of this training with these magnificent women that you can see summarized in this you tube video made by Arturo Jiménez.

On the one hand, a decorative tapestry inspired by the intangible heritage preserved by the people. A woolen tapestry with shapes and boucles inspired by the mask of the Boteiras and their flowers, in the clothing with colored ribbons. An artistic textile piece that pays homage to the rural women who have transmitted and preserve the culture of these territories.

And on the other hand,several smaller textile pieces that are inspired by traditional Galician textile techniques such as gorullo, made with linen, wool and colored ribbons that will serve as samples of different textile pieces for home decoration.

Thanks to all the women who have been able to take care of our intangible heritage, textiles, culture and popular wisdom through their crafts and daily chores so that today we can enjoy it. We must preserve it and be able to transmit it to future generations as these "Boteiras" do.