Ibermuseos-unobjecte2

An object, three visions. Virtual Museum of Integration

Ibermuseums of Education Award 2020

As part of International Museum Day, on Thursday 20 May, at 7 pm, the exhibition “One Object, Three Visions: A Virtual Museum of Integration” will be inaugurated. This exhibition puts an end to the project developed by the Museum of Footwear and Industry in recent months, winner of the Ibermuseos de Educación 2020 Award.

Specifically, the initiative has consisted of the creation of working groups consisting of three people, a former worker in the footwear industry, a person from outside Inca and a young man from the region. From an object of work, chosen by the former worker, conversations have been generated on everyday and professional areas that have triggered an intergenerational and intercultural dialogue between the different members of the teams. Therefore, as a whole, the exhibition presents three views on the same experience, thus conveying recognition, inclusion and learning.

Project presentation

Àngel – Heliana – Ariann

Angel is a model. His story brings his group closer to one of the most important and often unknown parts of the world of footwear: modeling.

The shoe is born through the idea of ​​the designer, who imagines and thinks. The viability of the shoe, the shape and the comfort depend on it. Ariann has been asking her questions since she was a child, and Heliana, from Brazil, is interested in the design of high-heeled shoes and the use of exotic leathers.

Therefore, as a result of the conversation between the three of them, the initial moment of creation of the shoe can be better understood. *

Carmen – Rachida – Xavi

Carmen arrived on the island at the age of 15 and from the very beginning she dedicated herself to the footwear sector.

Conditioned by being a woman, she was forced to work for ten years from home while raising her two children.

When he returned to the factory, he did so in Yanko, where he ended up retiring. Along with the questions of Xavi, a young inqueror, and Rachida, born in Morocco, the conversation unfolds in a casual way, starring the anecdotes that Carmen remembers with humor.

While Xavi, despite her youth, knows the shoe industry well because her parents did it, Rachida explains that when she was young she dedicated herself to making artistic slippers. In this conversation, then, we can see the rise and decline of the sector and the struggle of working women in Inca.

Mercedes – Amadou – Rayan

The story of Mercedes is the story of so many people who came from outside Mallorca to work on the island in the footwear sector.

Being a woman and being discriminated against in the environment motivated her to be one of the first women trade unionists in Inca after the Franco regime.

Thus, her experiences are a compilation of workers’ struggles, trade union action and the defense of women’s rights.

All of this will be reflected in the questions that young Senator Rayan and Senegalese-born Amadou ask him about safety, occupational hygiene, the decline of industry, and the sounds of factory sirens.

The conversation will also take them to Senegal, where Amadou, based on his experiences, will explain how shoes are made.

Rafel – Paula – Carla

Rafel’s story is purely life tied to footwear: a man who has worked all his life as a cutter.

Know every fold, every stitch, every corner of your shoe. Thanks to people like him it is possible to understand the almost mystical relationship that arises between the shoemaker and the product.

It’s not just about making the shoe with your hands – it’s about understanding it and that’s what Rafel knows best.

In the conversation that takes place between him, Carla and Paula, from Ecuador, we can understand the long process that a shoe goes through from the moment it is conceived to the time it is packaged.

Ricardo – Yulai – Aina

When one thinks of the footwear industry one tends to think of the factory, the machines and the people who make this product.

However, being a complex industry as it is, a whole series of elements are needed for it to work, such as the series of links that end up making up the chains, which are necessary for the shoe to be manufactured. These industries are called ancillary industries, and Ricardo’s testimony is a first-hand example.

He was a mechanic, in charge of repairing footwear machines, especially braiding machines. Thus, Ricardo explains the mechanical part of the sector.

Yulai, born in El Salvador, is very interested in the type of skin used in Inca, as crocodile and snake skins are widely used in her country. Aina, a young Inquera, is interested in the old working conditions in the sector.

Tomeu – Simona – Llorenç

Tomeu is a living example of what the footwear business sector in Inca has been like. Nostalgic for the past, his vision as an entrepreneur helps to better understand the rise and decline of the sector.

One of the highlights of the conversation comes when the young inqueror Llorenç asks Tomeu what is the main tool of a shoemaker.

Born in Romania, Simona gives a different view of what the Inca industry was like from the memories of her mother-in-law, also an Inca, and a former shoemaker.

Maria Antònia – Yaneth – Reyad

Maria Antònia’s vision brings us closer to the lives of so many inquirers who were born in the middle of the 20th century.

Some lives linked to the shoes that, as Maria Antonia explains, were raised with them and their manufacture. A life that focused on work, the sounds and smells of the skin.

To this nostalgic look we must add the more personal questions asked by the young Reyad and the passionate look of Yaneth, born in Mexico.

Francisca – Simona – Gorka

Francisca explains the childhood of many children who from an early age were forced to work in factories to help their families.

It was the beginning of a job that, if necessary and in many other women, would be, years later, an important step for the emancipation of women.

Simona and Francisca connect immediately. The testimonies of the two women, together with the innocence of the comments of Gorka, Simona’s son, lead to the establishment of a bond and a complicity that materializes in a mutual recognition and desire to continue in the future with this friendship.

Photo album

Vídeo del projecte