The Remembrance Square travelling exhibition reaches Donostia-San Sebastian

The Mayor of Donostia-San Sebastián, Eneko Goia, and the GOGORA Director, Aintzane Ezenarro, this morning unveiled the programme for the Remembrance Square travelling exhibition which is now coming to the capital of Gipuzkoa. Remembrance Square is a citizen participation project that seeks to compile and showcase witness accounts on what happened in the Basque Country in recent decades in order to built a shared and pluralistic memory. The exhibition can be visited at a marquee in the Alderdi Eder gardens between 28 May and 8 June.

During the presentation, Eneko Goia stressed the value of this initiative “on the way to establish justice, redress and the memory of the victims". The Mayor recalled that San Sebastián is the Basque city with the greatest number of victims of both ETA and of other violent groups, and he therefore stressed the important that Remembrance Square has in the city. Goia pointed out that the people of Donostia-San Sebastián will have the opportunity to enjoy the exhibition, and the Mayor called on them to do so “for a deliberate reflection and remembrance”.

OBJECTIVES

This travelling phase of the Remembrance Square project has four objectives:

o Disseminate and share the memory through an exhibition and drive a reflection constructed among all of us.

o Provide a space where the general public can leave their accounts.

o Work on the memories at municipal level by driving dynamics in order to share critical reflections on the past.

o Outreach and showcase the Gogora Institute to the general public

EXHIBITION VENUE

The exhibition will be set up in a marquee with different areas:

o Account recording area: visitors to the exhibition can record or write in situ their accounts of what they remember.

o Account videos: visitors can listen to the accounts of victims of Franco’s dictatorship, terrorism and the victims coming under Decree 107/2012.

o Screening and discussion area: two documentaries will be screened and group dynamics and talks will be organised:

o Message mural: visitors to the exhibition can leave a written message on a mural and also in an urn, to be kept at the Gogora Institute and to be published on the Remembrance Square website.

PROGRAMME

Aintzane Ezenarro, the Gogora Director, then outlined the events organised in Donostia-San Sebastián around the exhibition:

12.00 noon on 28 May: Exhibition opening ceremony.

7.30 p.m. on 30 May: Donostia/San Sebastián’s Recent Memory. Roundtable with the Mayor and former mayors.

6.00 p.m. on 2 June: “Constructing Memory: Dialogue between Victims and Society” Group Dynamics regarding Memory and Coexistence.

7.00 p.m. on 6 June: Talk on Historical Memory. Lourdes Herrasti: “Exhuming Mass Graves. Recovering Dignity”. Eneko Sanz: “The Spanish Civil War in San Sebastián and the Figure of its Republican Mayor, Fernando Sasiain”.

REMEMBRANCE SQUARE BACKGROUND

The Gogora Institute has begun to showcase and expand these pluralistic memories by creating spaces for anyone who wishes to contribute their account.

Remembrance Square has so far visited Bilbao, Durango, Tolosa, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Eibar.