Printed Militancy: Political Identity in Textiles

The exhibition “Printed Militancy: Political Identity in Textiles” is organized by the Institute for University Reform, Vice-Rectorate. It can be visited Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM and will be open until July 31st. It is located at the University Cultural Space (ECU) at San Martín 750, and admission is free.

This exhibition invites you to explore the history of Universidad Nacional de Rosario Through a medium as everyday as it is political: the t-shirts of their student groups. Clothing is not a superficial choice, but a living tension between the desire for belonging and the need for differentiation. Each garment displayed here functioned as a uniform of shared identities, an invisible bond that united generations of students around common ideals of social transformation. With the return of democracy in the 1980s, a vital urgency to once again express themselves, to celebrate their regained freedom, blossomed within the student body, transforming fabric into a canvas of ideas and pride in identity. The pieces on display also reflect a material and technological evolution: the transition from artisanal screen printing—with its frames, meshes, and subtle imperfections—to the precision of modern digital printing and transfers. In this journey, the color palette was not random; the variations in color defined ideological boundaries, identified collective identities, and colored the hallways of the faculties. Today, these and other t-shirts are presented as valuable historical documents and textiles preserved in the Student Movement Archive of the Reform Institute. We invite you to discover how the UNR student community dressed up their struggles, transforming fashion into a bastion of collective identity. 
Mr. Alex E. Ratto