There were 40 women in this performance. 20 of them were teenagers who had suffered abuse and lived under the government’s protection. The other 20 were women who had the ideal of changing the situation of these young women.
The white dresses were developed by the teenagers, who lived in a secret place. Each one received a dress and a pen. They turned the dresses inside out and wrote, in red, everything that had happened in their lives, all they had suffered. Like a page of a diary.
The 20 other women in the performance wore the dresses written by the teenagers, put on a petticoat under the dress and, holding a soap bar, walked to the space where the action happened.
The ritual took place on a public fountain in Mi Pueblito, a typical place that represents the traditions of Panamanians. They made a circle around the fountain, took off the dresses, revealing what was written on them. In this moment the public could be in touch with the feelings of these anonymous girls.
On a solidarity act, they washed the dresses, symbolically trying to remove the stains, the memories left by the girls. Slowly the fountain obtained a red color, absorbing the content of the words on the dresses, as they were being washed in order to become white.
After they are washed, the women twisted the dresses and put them on again, wet and pink, because unfortunately the memories cannot be totally removed.