Eva Máñez : El Paredón de España

Les femmes gardiennes de la mémoire

Fifty years after the death of Francisco Franco, the many wounds inherited from forty years of dictatorship remain open in Spain. Since his victory in the Civil War in 1939, Franco had exercised executive, legislative and judicial power, without any political or democratic control over the institutions of the State. It is estimated that between 1936 and 1945, around 150,000 people were executed under Franco's rule, many of whom still lie in mass graves. Photographer Eva Máñez takes us to three key places for understanding this conflict: the pits of the so-called ‘execution wall of Spain’ in Paterna, the accounts of the ‘defeated’ in the now-touristy area of La Safor and the actual tomb of the dictator in Mingorrubio. A photographic and testimonial ‘post-memorial’ journey through the consequences of fascism and totalitarianism in the 20th century. More than 2,238 people were shot in front of a wall next to the cemetery in Paterna (Valencia) during Francisco Franco's four-decade reign of terror in Spain. Their bodies were then buried in more than 60 mass graves. The civil war was over, but the regime continued to shoot thousands of people in reprisal until 1956. Memory is more tenacious and powerful than oblivion and, after more than eighty years, the victims of Francoism are resurfacing. By opening the graves, archaeologists are discovering the time that the weight of the earth had stopped: they are documenting the traces of the crime, tracing the positions drawn by the skeletons and collecting their fragments to reconstitute the stony fabric of the bodies. In this way, they restore their names, their faces, their lives after death. That's why they came here: the women who keep the flame of their memory alive. They are their descendants, the heirs to the trauma of their forced absence. They have come to denounce the crime and, if possible, to put an end to the impunity of the perpetrators. Alongside photos of Paterna, the epicentre of the fight for Remembrance, we'll find images of the tomb of the dictator Francisco Franco and accounts of Franco's repression in the La Safor region. A journey through the consequences of fascism and totalitarianism in the 20th century. In 2016, photojournalist Eva Máñez began documenting the exhumations of the mass graves in the Paterna cemetery and published them in the main media. Throughout this process, she met dozens of courageous women who passed on to her a wealth of stories of pain and research. In 2021, Máñez decided to gather their voices, those of grandmothers, widows, daughters, sisters and granddaughters: the chronicles of those who have never lost their memory. This exhibition is the fruit of this journey through space and time.

Main organizer(s): neimënster

Opening on 10/12 at 6:30 p.m.

Free entry upon registration: Billetterie@neimenster.lu

The exhibitions are open every day from 10:00 to 18:00.

However, certain events may limit access to the site.

Please consult our website and contact us.

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Annual closure 20/12/25 > 04/01/26

Like every year, neimënster closes its doors for the festive season.

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So, from 20/12/25 to 04/01/26, neimënster will be on festive break.