Spanish Artist Highlights Women’s Stories Through Her Work

Mar Caldas: Reclaiming Women’s History Through Art and Memory in Franco-Era Spain

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain — At the center of a powerful new exhibition at the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea lies a bold interrogation of Spain’s historical silences—specifically, those that surround women’s labor and daily lives under the repressive Franco regime. Mar Caldas’s exhibition, Mar Caldas: Mujeres, trabajo, y memoria (Women, Work, and Memory), is an immersive reflection on the resilience and visibility of women through the intertwined praxes of history, photography, and personal narrative.

The exhibition serves as both a tribute and a counternarrative—one that dismantles patriarchal and state-sanctioned ideals, bringing visibility to the historically invisible.

A Feminist Reclamation of Public Memory

Upon entering the exhibition, viewers are greeted by Guía postal de Lugo (1936–1976), a wall installation that lays bare Spain’s deeply rooted misogynistic ideologies. Common Franco-era sayings like “O home na praza e a muller na casa” (“The man in the square and the woman in the home”) hover over black-and-white photographs of women at work—behind pharmacy counters, in bustling street markets, clinics, and canneries.

This juxtaposition of oppressive language with empowering imagery calls attention to women’s omnipresence in public life, even when the state sought to efface it. The installation critiques society’s denial of that fact and reclaims public memory as a space for truth-telling and visibility.

Curator Monse Cea aptly notes that while these sexist sayings “continue to mock us to this day,” Caldas’s work honors the defiant spirit of women, past and present.

Portraits of Galicia’s Unsung Workers

The exhibit moves from critical reflection to celebratory homage in Caldas’s large-scale photographic series, Facedoras de Bueu (Makers of Bueu) and Facedoras do Baixo Miño (Makers of the Lower Miño). These portraits of women workers in southern Galicia feature farmers, seamstresses, seaweed harvesters, caretakers, and lace makers—all playing indispensable roles in rural and coastal community economies.

Shot in scenic environments echoing the rustic beauty of Galicia, these images are far from being mere documentation. They are stylized tributes, often evoking the visual language of European master painters like Diego Velázquez or Francisco Goya. A striking example, Esfolladora de millo (Corn Husker) (2018), presents an older woman cradling ears of corn that fan out like regal plumage. With a direct, unwavering gaze, she asserts the meaning and legitimacy of her life and labor.

This reclamation of classical portraiture to center working-class women is a subtle but forceful challenge to elitist art historical canons. Caldas not only celebrates these women’s contributions but elevates them to the level of art royalty—rightfully so.

Excavating Personal and Political Trauma

The most intimate section of the exhibition is found in Retrato de familia (Family Portrait) (2023–24), a museum-commissioned project that explores Caldas’s own family history during Franco’s brutal dictatorship. Her grandfather, José Caldas Iglesias, a socialist trade union leader, was executed in 1937 for his political stance.

Through letters, family photographs, official documents, and newspaper clippings, Caldas reconstructs a story of systemic persecution. Her grandmother, mother, and aunts bore the heavy burden of stigma and state surveillance for decades. These women—silent victims of repression—are brought forward in the narrative as central figures of strength and resilience.

Accompanying this archival material are Caldas’s meditative texts, which serve both as personal memoir and socio-historical commentary. She contends that her family’s suffering is emblematic of the collective trauma endured by countless Spanish families—a trauma that remains insufficiently acknowledged even nearly 50 years after Franco’s death in 1975.

Sementes: Generational Memory and Legacy

The show also includes selections from her latest series, Sementes (Seeds) (2024), which explores generational continuity through portraits of elder matriarchs and younger women. For example, in the striking composition “Carmen Nogueira Martínez (Mamacarmen),” there’s a palpable transmission of affect and endurance.

These images continue the show’s core theme—memory as an active, living force that not only records the past but also sows the future. Seeds, after all, imply growth, continuity, and the spreading of something vital.

Conclusion: Breaking the Silence, Claiming the Narrative

Mar Caldas: Mujeres, trabajo, y memoria is more than a conventional exhibition—it is an act of cultural and historical reclamation. Through her sensitive yet assertive art practice, Caldas not only amplifies the voices of