Newborn babies were stolen from single or unfitting mothers, who were told that their babies were dead. In reality, the babies were sold to pro-Franco regime model families. The transactions were organized and run by the Catholic Church, a network of private and public hospitals, maternities, and the Franco Regime. A law battle is ongoing with the Ministry of Justice in Spain to unmask the truth and allow access to the files. Fake birth and death certificates, fake funerals and burials were produced, and no possibility of tracing biological mothers by erasing their names from any register. All in the name of law and social welfare.

Lost is a video installation about this issue. The projection shows full names and dates of birth of the Spanish Stolen Children who have provided their personal data, as well as of the mothers and other relatives searching for the “dead babies”, together with the presumed date of death or disappearance they were given. All this information is coordinated by national organizations that deal with victims and look for possible matches via a DNA bank.

LOST EVERYWHERE

While the Spanish Stolen Babies are known worldwide, similar situations have occurred and are still occurring worldwide: Ireland, the UK, former DDR Germany, Cambodia, Russia, Mexico, all the way to the US.

Rosa Pascual

Rosa Pascual is a socially engaged multidisciplinary visual artist. She has been working as a multidisciplinary artist and creative director for arts and cultural organizations mostly in London and Barcelona for the past thirty-three years, and lately also in Finland, Berlin and Sweden. She has funded Art Collaboratif, a platform focusing on collaborating with other art forms and artists as a way of expansion and discovery. She studied photography and media and has a background in theatre design. Her work is conceptual and visual, focusing on space, movement, and sound, and ranging from installations to video and life performances.

In LOST, Rosa Pascual has partnered with CIFOG (Multimedia Department at Girona University) and five Spanish Associations dealing with victims of the adoption scam.