SHOE MUSEUM
“SHOES THAT THINK” PROJECT
Museums, as entities responsible for the preservation and the identity and territorial promotion of the communities of which they are part, play a very important role in the development of society. Building bridges between the past, present and future, museums become privileged spaces for dialogue. They are places to arouse curiosity, which contribute to cultural transformation and, just as importantly, promote the development of more sustainable societies. In this context, the Shoe Museum introduces the project “Shoes that Think”. This is a process-project that is building itself and where the “shoe” object, stripped (or not) of its primordial function, takes central stage. Invoking the restlessness, the emotion and the reflection suggested by the shoes we wear in our times and in our world, “Shoes that Think” is a challenge to all those who wonder and make us wonder about the world around us, the present day and the futures we mean to create.
DON’T BE COMPLICIT. TAKE A STEP AGAINST FEMICIDE.
A tribute to the women murdered in 2018. Between 1st January and 31st December 2018, 28 women were killed in Portugal, murdered in the context of intimate relationships. With this symbolic installation, we aim to pay a tribute to all the women murdered by their husbands, ex-husbands, partners, former partners, boyfriends, ex-boyfriends, and other relatives, to show that these hideous crimes must come to an end. Each pair of shoes symbolizes a woman, her life, her dreams, her journey which was criminally interrupted. The colour red has a double meaning: on one hand, the love, the passion, the energy in each of their lives, on the other hand, the violence of the crime that was committed, the abrupt end of a story and the blood that was shed. Metaphorically, we invite everyone to walk in these shoes and, even for a few brief moments, to tread these women’s path, feeling their pain. The silence and indifference of a sexist and patriarchal society that places the responsibility on the victims and not the perpetrators, the lack of adequate protection for any of these women (even after filing complaints) and the message of tolerance often conveyed by our judicial system, are a major contribution to this crime. For them, for all the women who suffer and/or have suffered, for all the children who see and/or have seen their mothers suffering, being abused and, too many times, killed, we cannot be silent. Let us remember, let us talk, let us speak out and say that we are outraged, that we do not accept and that we condemn all violence against women. And we call on everyone to join us and take a step against Femicide, by exercising their citizenship, by sending a clear message of condemnation to the perpetrators, by expressing their outrage for all actions that jeopardise the Human Rights of Women and by preserving the victims and their suffering in our collective memory. For each of these silenced voices, we also intend to send a clear message that the perpetrators/murderers must be convicted and that the sense of impunity these crimes of Domestic Violence and Femicide enjoy in Portugal must come to an end.
UMAR, União de Mulheres Alternativa e Resposta
