Vitoria-Gasteiz to host the first stage of the Remembrance Square travelling exhibition in Alava

The Mayor of Vitoria-Gasteiz, Gorka Urtaran, and the GOGORA Director, Aintzane Ezenarro, today unveiled the programme for the Remembrance Square in Gasteiz initiative. It is the first stop of this travelling exhibition in Alava, which the Alava Provincial Council is also involved in organising. Remembrance Square is a citizen participation project that seeks to compile and showcase accounts of what happened in the Basque Country in recent decades in order to construct a shared and pluralistic memory. The exhibition can be visited in the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca square from 18 to 24 April.

During the presentation, Gorka Urtaran stressed the importance of bringing the victims' accounts to the general public. “We have to help to build a pluralistic memory as we cannot forget that it is everybody’s memory,” he stressed. He also invited the general public to visit the exhibition, leave their accounts and be actively involved in the roundtables being organised as part of the exhibition.

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 around the exhibition.

o 6.30 p.m. on 18 April: Exhibition opening ceremony.

o 7.00 p.m. on 18 April.:“The Memory of Vitoria-Gasteiz”. Roundtable with Jose Angel Cuerda, Alfonso Alonso and Patxi Lazcoz. Moderator: Sara Buesa.

o 7.00 p.m. on 21 April: Roundtable with Marta Buesa and Eva Barroso.

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. The travelling phase of the Remembrance Square project has already visited Bilbao, Durango and Tolosa, and will reach Álava on Monday 18 April with Vitoria-Gasteiz as the first stop.