SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, June 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The artists Miguel G. Morales and Eugenio Merino have given new meaning to the El Tanque Cultural Space so that it becomes, from June 29 to September 10, a monument to the memory of the people killed or made to disappear during the Francoist repression in the Canary Islands.
El Tanque, which was the focus of the workers’ struggle and the union movement since the 20s of the last century, thus becomes the only memorial in memory of all the people murdered by means of forced drowning, firing squads or made to disappear in chasms. , wells, ravines or volcanic tubes during the Coup d’état and the repression in the archipelago.
It is an especially significant space for being part of the Refinery site, whose oil was sent to the Peninsula as energy for the fascist military machine and with the complicity of senior officials and businessmen involved in the 1936 Coup d’état conspiracy.
The work will be activated with the participation of the relatives of the victims and will be completed with the video installation ‘Monument to Darkness’. Citizens will be able to participate in the construction of this collective monument by sending the photographs and the names of the reprisalized persons to the email [email protected].
On June 29, the day of the inauguration, as if it were the first stone of a monument, the president of the Association for the Historical Memory of Arucas, Pino Sosa, will paste the poster with the photograph of her father, José Sosa Deniz . Pino has dedicated his entire life to searching for the remains of her father and to the fight for reparation and democratic justice. She, unlike other relatives who disappeared in the Canary Islands, was able to discover the mortal remains of her parent in the Tenoya well in 2018, along with those of 14 other people. Pino Sosa will be joined by other relatives from La Palma, La Gomera, Gran Canaria or Tenerife.
With this counter-monument, Miguel G. Morales and Eugenio Merino take a further step in their research on the visibility of the disappeared persons in the repression, in the context of a city like Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The eight Canarian capitals currently house a total of 200 Francoist monuments.
The project is curated by Adonay Bermúdez and can be visited from June 29 to September 10 at the El Tanque Cultural Space, c/ Adán Martín Menis s/n in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, a space attached to the Government of the Canary Islands.
PEOPLE REPRISALIZED IN THE CANARY ISLANDS.
The coup d’état and Franco’s repression left between 1,500 and 3,000 people dead or missing in the Canary Islands, with forced drowning being one of the most common. At least 45 canaries were deported to Nazi concentration camps.
“The objective was the systematic implantation of terror among the population, for which violence was exercised against any person who was not affected by the new regime, whether or not they had questioned the privileges of the landowners, the political class, the businessmen , the Catholic Church or the Army”, says Carlota Álvarez Basso, cultural manager and curator, in the text she has written for the audiovisual piece.
In addition, all the files that have served as the basis for this investigation will be accessible. For the first time it will be possible to see the original manuscript of ‘Lo Unforeseen’, a decisive work by Domingo López Torres written in Fyffes prison with illustrations by Luís Ortíz Rosales, who was also retaliated against.
Likewise, the artists have proposed to the musician José A. Fajardo the musical adaptation of some of these poems, which can be heard in a concert that will take place inside the Tank and as part of the memorial itself. The people who visit the space will be enveloped by the sepulchral silence, as if it were a temple of worship and in an almost mystical atmosphere. Access will be public and free.
The project has had the invaluable help of researchers and historians from the Canary Islands and groups such as the ARMH Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, the Association for the Historical Memory of Arucas and the Association of Historical Memory of La Palma. The Centers for Art, Culture and Tourism of the Cabildo de Lanzarote and the Town Hall of Tías have collaborated on the project.
