


Weaving to repair is my main field of artistic research where I use weaving to repair and thereby metaphorically prevent or stop situations of humanitarian, ecological or personal danger. This research applies to the majority of my projects and in various forms.
I look at the world and I see a large fabric where the warp is the geographical space in which the weft of time runs and intertwines.
I use embroidery, sewing, darning, weaving to connect and create new augmented connections to poetically and symbolically correct those situations that cause suffering, pain, family separation, ecological disasters, among others. But also to metaphorically gather these people around a common idea to give it strength and power.
Using my experiences in the textile world and some restoration techniques, I create my works on paper or fabric, mainly with thread. With it, I wish to make a poetic demonstration that everything can be repaired.
A map is not only a representation of geography, nor an illustration of geology, demography or any other socio-economic data. A map is also a direct access to the population of the place represented, to its history and to its collective or individual memory.
I am where I am!
One cannot dissociate a person from where he or she is, nor from where he or she was born: fortunately sometimes, unfortunately, too often.
Any change in one person will influence the rest of the family, the community, then an entire nation and finally can change the world.
In “Change/Repair – Equality” (Aurélia Cerulei 2020 – Yarn exchange and weawing on cotton cloth – 70x70cm) I change the threads of a fabric to achieve equality between all in the country where I have chosen to live, where I was well received and where I have almost never suffered from prejudice while the native population is in great danger, deprived of its land and where the descendants of slaves are still for the majority victims of structural racism (I must emphasize here that I am French and white). The choice of a cloth, a mop, present in all Brazilian homes, is not insignificant, nor is the fact of leaving visible the knots that on a normal restoration job should be on the reverse side.
In the serie “The weft of the world” I change the structure of a classic weave to represent the place and I use the strength or symbology of one or both colors chosen to reinforce the message. The white of peace will draw the lands of the world in “Research” (Aurélia Cerulei 2019 – Threads woven on paper – 41x52cm) , while the blue simply underlines the oceans.
In “Weaving to fix (me) Nº11” ” (Aurélia Cerulei 2020 – Threads woven on paper and shard of ceramic tile – 25x25x0,3cm) is made, as all the artworks of this series, with pieces of dishware found within 300 meters of my house/atelier, during the rare exits that I authorize myself since the beginning of the pandemic, most of them near the sea.
These routes are the search for access to my interior maps to find the path of my repair.
The world is definitely a big fabric, worn in some places, torn in others but, unlike an image, the structure of a fabric allows me restoration, repair, consolidation in addition to the radical change and the richness of the possibilities of transformation proportionate to the act of weaving*. The yarn being at the same time structure, link and decor, either the world as a territory or as humanity, its history and its teachings or the past, the present and the future.
*see video of the project being finalized “Sara’s legacy” where the thread chosen to weave the cards is loaded with story and where the time it takes to complete the weaving is an integral part of the work and its purpose.
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