From 1939 to the 1990s, a large number of babies and children disappeared from women’s prisons, maternity wards and public and private hospitals in Spain.
Duerma en ti – a title inspired by Gabriela Mistral’s poem, “The Sad Mother” – presents twenty cases of victims of these disappearances through photographs, testimonies and documents.
The project is a collaboration among Lange-Churión, Borrachero Mendívil and several victims’ associations. It invites the visitor to ask questions and seek answers: What happened? Why? What are the consequences of these disappearances for the victims? Has there been any response from the State? Is our silence complicit?
This exhibit links aspects of this crime against humanity to eugenic practices well established since the 1920’s in various European countries and in the U.S. The Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco, sought to forge a new Spanish race, founded on fascist and ultra-Catholic values. To this end, his regime, while seeing mothers as the forbearers of the new race, also punished politically dissident women by abducting their newborns. Duerma en ti has been developed against the backdrop of Spain’s current struggle to reckon with its difficult past and the construction of a collective memory.
Designed as an itinerant exhibit, Duerma en ti opened on March 12, 2019 at the Centro Cultural del Carmen, one of Valencia’s most prestigious museums. Valencia’s most prominent newspapers have written excellent reviews. We are convinced that this project will significantly contribute to bring to the consciousness of the public this crime against humanity. The exhibit opened in the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Madrid on March 19, 2022. In October, 2022 Duerma en ti opened in Pamplona (Navarra, Spain) and then traveled to Navarra, Pamplona where at the gallery of the Pamplona Planetarium. The closure of the exhibition featured choreography by dantzaz, a German-Spanish dance company. The exhibition is scheduled to open in other museums in Spain and Europe. We areconvinced that this project will significantly contribute to bring to the consciousness of the public this crime against humanity and thus help to preserve this important chapter of Spain's history.