Release yourself
It is a program created in 2020 that seeks to generate permanent spaces for art, culture, and remembrance within women's prisons, connecting the prisons with cultural centers in the Valparaíso Region. Through art workshops, reading promotion, exhibitions of artwork, and commemorations, it fosters creativity, resilience, and the denormalization of gender-based violence.
The program has fostered the creation of works such as Juntas más Libres (Freer Together) and Cristales (Crystals) , as well as collective texts that validate writing as an act of memory and protest. It also organizes events on key dates such as International Women's Day and Human Rights Day , strengthening the bond between incarcerated women and the community.
Since the beginning of the program, we have worked in partnership with the Valparaíso Cultural Park – Former Prison , consolidating art as a tool for transformation and vindication of rights for women and diverse people deprived of their liberty.
METHODOLOGIES
Somatic-dialogical methodology
Participatory methodology
Guided and creative writing methodology
Oral storytelling methodology
Pictorial and visual methodology
Theatrical methodology and stage expression
Methodology of collective creation
Guided breathing methodology
Transdisciplinary artistic workshops
We address collective themes through artistic tools such as performing arts, dance, music, performance art, visual arts, and crafts. These spaces serve an educational, unifying, and denormalizing function regarding gender-based violence against women and gender minorities.
These processes give rise to works that are then disseminated in public spaces. Among them, we highlight the transdisciplinary stage work Juntas más Libres (Freer Together), created in the Valparaíso women's prison during 2020-2021, which addresses the difficulties of life in prison, motherhood behind bars, and the dreams of women.
Also emerging was Cristales , a stage production created in 2022 in the dissident pavilion of the Quillota prison, which engages with the pain of the LGBTIQA+ population deprived of liberty, using testimony as an exercise in memory.
Reading/Writing Promotion Workshops
We create training spaces that value and highlight the knowledge present in women's prisons and the LGBTQ+ ward. Through transdisciplinary methodologies, the workshops provide tools such as reading, writing, oral communication, and storytelling, fostering creativity, reflection, and critical thinking.
This process is also configured as an exercise in memory and denormalization of gender violence against women and diverse people, positioning the validation of life stories as acts of resistance.
In this context, we have developed collective texts such as Expression behind bars: I would like to be free , I'm leaving now , Write , Tell and Fly , among others.
Exhibition and mediation of works
Creating spaces for mediation and exhibition of artworks, both inside and outside prisons, fosters active participation and the recognition of cultural rights as a fundamental human right. By offering a conducive environment for presenting artistic creations and promoting dialogue, these spaces contribute to making these rights visible and asserting them, thus fostering social cohesion and respect for the dignity of incarcerated individuals.
In this way, access to new cultural references is provided, stimulating the development of innovative symbolic universes, while also allowing for enjoyment and reflection through learning. This space is managed by the foundation in collaboration with various artists, both regional, national, and international.
Conferences and commemorations
We organize events and commemorations within prisons as a form of political education and historical memory, as a mechanism for asserting rights and fostering meaningful learning that aims at individual and community transformation, contributing to a harmonious coexistence based on compassion and respect. Through artistic and cultural activities, we create spaces for reflection through initiatives such as anti-racist and diversity awareness events.
We also commemorate significant international days, such as December 10 (Human Rights Day), March 8 (International Women's Day), June 25 (World Commemoration of Sexual Diversity), and December 8 (in memory of the fire at the San Miguel prison in Santiago), among other important dates. Furthermore, on a regular basis and in collaboration with other organizations, we create spaces to present impactful works, activities, and actions that highlight crucial issues such as feminism, diversity, childhood, and the fight against discrimination, among other topics that foster moments of reflection and care.
