In Collserola there are sheep. And also a group of artists who make art from the wool that is thrown away. They are the textile collective Tornen les Esquelles, which was born in 2021 within the framework of LAB Collserola and works to convert a waste product into a tool to make the territory heard.
At the center of the project are Ana Vivero, Solange Dalannais, Esther Clusas, Ana Belén López Taverne and Alicia Monreal Ortega, and they have several collaborators. All of them have learned to wash, card and felt wool, a long process that dates back to prehistory and that these artists recover in their works, dyed with natural dyes.
Each project is an excuse to meet and learn with the shepherds of Collserola, figures often made invisible, but essential for the balance of the territory. “For us, they are heritage,” summarizes Vivero.
To make visible the livestock farmers
The creations, moreover, want to make visible the harsh conditions in which the few livestock farmers remaining in the Collserola Mountain Range Natural Park work, as is the case of José Antonio Montoya Moreno, a resident of Torre Baró who had grazed in Montcada i Reixac for thirty years. A few months ago he had to leave the profession and sell the flock after losing the tender for the shed where he had worked for more than three decades. This story motivated Tornen les Esquelles to convert Montoya's wool into a red felt cloak, inspired by traditional grazing cloaks and which was exhibited at the Disseny Hub of Barcelona in 2023.
In 2024, the group received a commission within the framework of the Manifesta 15 Biennial and created the Tapestry of Concord, which united the wool of Ramaders DB, by David Barrero and David Barris, with others from Collserola “to talk about the grief they felt”. The collective presented the piece in an action at the Tres Xemeneies, in Sant Adrià de Besòs, which was one of the spaces of Manifesta 15. The finished work was exhibited at Casa Gomis, in El Prat. From the collective they explain that all this happened during the tender for shepherd Montoya's sheep and, as a tribute, they wanted to present the tapestry after “he came down from Montcada to the Besòs beach with the sheep to recover the pastoral history”. But it was difficult to ask for the permits and they could not do it.
Apart from these interventions, their tapestries have been woven in gatherings in various places of the metropolitan territory, such as the workshop of Casa Aymat, an old manufacture of carpets and tapestries of Sant Cugat del Vallès. For seven years, this collective has made tapestry a work of art with a clear idea: the future is not imagined alone; it is woven and harmonized with a bell that rings again.
