The Tourist Centers will bring art to the Tahíche Penitentiary Center with the launch of Retopía, a project that seeks to activate mechanisms that contribute to building positive factors in the evolution of the person deprived of liberty aimed at achieving their re-education and social reintegration. Retopía uses words such as Recycle, Transform, Opportunity, Individual, Present and Learning to open a window to the inner world of the prison through art. According to its creators, it is "designing a personal image, a new identity and telling a new story; sowing a seed of hope, of illusion, a new opportunity on the road."
Retopía designs personal projects that dress emotions and parade hope, and promotes the improvement and growth of the human being at the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels, both for the individual's own well-being and for society.
The CEO of the Tourist Centers, Benjamín Perdomo, went to the Penitentiary Center to see the start of the works on El Muro, a workshop that will give life to a wall through a painting inspired by the work of Manrique made by the prison population itself, which aims to build bridges of integration between society and the prison.
This activity, which is complemented by theoretical and debate sessions based on the contemplation and analysis of works such as The Kiss, by Klimt; Head of a Woman, by Picasso; Old Man in Sorrow, by Van Gogh and The Hands of Protest, by Guaysamín, among others, aims to help manage emotions such as frustration, fear, anger, self-esteem, sadness and anguish.
Perdomo shared the morning with the participants of El Muro, and highlighted that "Retopía contributes, from art, to re-educating people deprived of their liberty so that they can enjoy a second chance, to tear down real and imagined walls and to eliminate prejudices and social labels."
El Muro is scheduled to be completed throughout the month of June.
More Retopía activities
Retopía is a transversal project that includes other activities to "build the Individual."
"Sewing and telling" includes workshops such as The Stitches of the Heart and The Tailor of Emotions, which aim to help inmates learn to release physical, mental and emotional tensions to find tranquility and satisfaction in themselves.
Sewing and telling will take place between the months of January and August of this year.
The Observer's Gaze proposes painting on wool and natural silk fabric the work of El Muro to create a garment "Seamless". It is about linking the work done with a garment that represents the personal "walls" that we build in our mental imaginary.
A photographic exhibition will be set up with different styles, accompanied by a brief explanation of the steps taken, with the intention of reaching the highest number of possible outfits, up to a total of nineteen to commemorate the year of birth of César Manrique (1919).
This project will be carried out during the last quarter of the year.
On September 23 and 24, coinciding with the festivity of Nuestra Señora de la Merced, patron saint of the Corps of officials of Penitentiary Institutions, Fashion Experience "Herencia 1919" will be celebrated, a "parade of clothing and emotions" in the Cactus Garden.
