What were you wearing?
25 and 26 November 2022
Promoted by Amnesty International under the patronage of Municipio Roma II

 

 

A tracksuit, a tight little black dress, but also a cleaning apron or pyjamas, jeans with a turtleneck jumper, a little dress: this is What were you wearing?, the exhibition by Libere Sinergie in which stories of sexual violence are told through the clothes women wore when they suffered violence. On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, established by the United Nations for 25 November, What were you wearing? is being staged simultaneously in the spaces of the MACRO and in over 20 locations throughout Italy.

 

The project is the brainchild of Jen Brockman, director of the Kansas Centre for Sexual Assault Prevention and Education, and Mary A. Wyandt-Hiebert, head of all programming initiatives at the University of Arkansas’ Centre for Education Against Rape, where the exhibition was first shown in 2013.

 

The event came to Italy in 2018 through the Associazione Libere Sinergie, and after Amnesty International-Italy revived it, after launching the #IOLOCHIEDO campaign in 2020 for the introduction of the principle of consent in our legal system in reference to sexual violence.

 

The main purpose of the exhibition, besides being to promote greater public awareness of the issue of gender-based violence, is also to advocate the need to combat the guilt passed on to the victims, which is not a minor issue. Visitors can identify with the stories told and at the same time see how common the clothes the victims wore are. In this context, the stereotypes that lead one to think that by eliminating certain clothes from the wardrobes or avoiding wearing them, women can automatically eliminate sexual violence become evident.