A large, vertical piece of woven textile art hanging on a white gallery wall next to informational text about migrants from Peru and Venezuela.

Trochas: 20 mil pesos

Sile March 16 at 7:26 PM
Who can tell me how much they're charging to cross through the trocha in San Antonio
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Eliezer Jose Eliezer Jose
20 thousand pesos

Year: 2019

Materials: Mercerized cotton.

Dimensions: 32” x 98”

A handwritten letter in cursive on paper, densely packed with text.

Trochas: 20 mil pesos translates Facebook posts from Venezuelan border-crossing groups into hand-woven textile using a TC2 digital jacquard loom. Social media text becomes weaving instructions, creating patterns where individual messages blur into a textile structure.

A vertical black and white textile art piece hangs in a minimalist white gallery with plain white walls and concrete floor, featuring a gradient pattern from white at the top to black at the bottom with fringed edges.
Close-up of a fabric or textile with black cursive writing on a white background.
Man with short dark hair in black jacket observing a vertical artwork with black, white, and gray textured patterns
  • Map showing the border crossing between Venezuela and Colombia with roads, contour lines, and terrain features.
  • Screenshot of Facebook posts with information regarding crossing bridges safely and COVID-19 precautions, overlayed on an outdoor scene of a grassy field with some plants and rocks.
  • A lengthy block of text in Spanish discussing various reactions and responses, mentioning several names and times, with frequent use of 'Ocultar o reportar' (hide or report).
  • A dense block of handwritten text in black ink on white paper, with small, cursive cursive handwriting covering the entire image.
  • Pixelated digital embroidery design with red thread patterns on a light background, integrated with an embroidery software interface.
  • A large roll of fabric with black cursive script on a white background, partially unrolled on a printing press or flat surface.

Process: Social media posts from Venezuelan border-crossing groups were collected and formatted as bitmap files for the TC2 digital jacquard loom. The text in this format becomes coordinate points that lift the needles of the machine and guide the physical weaving process, transforming them into textile.