New exhibit sets out to 'unearth the silence'

foto-desenterrant-el-silenci-1The Formentera Council's culture office announces that at 8.00pm on Friday, Centre Antoni Tur “Gabrielet” will hold the opening of an exhibit on historical memory titled “Desenterrant el silenci”.

Drawing on photos by Sergi Bernal, the exhibit is about uncovering memories of the mass graves left in the wake of the Spanish Civil War. But it is also more than that. It is an attempt to make good on the promise of schoolteacher (mestre) Benaiges to his pupils that once his notebook “El mar” was published he would take them to sea.

The show stems from a teaching philosophy in which the student is at the centre of the learning process. This is also true of the notebooks which the pupils themselves prepared at their school in Bañuelos de Bureba, a small town in Burgos where Antoni Benaiges used the Freinet method (so named for Célestin Freinet).

Since first opening in September 2011 at the civic centre in Les Esmandíes de Mataró, the exhibit has been visited by people in nearly thirty cities and towns across the country.