In the Spider’s Web

Children, Institutional Violence and Feminist Horizons of Justice

Friday, 26, and Saturday, 27 April 2024 - Check programme
Image of the stage piece Arrancamiento (Wrenching), by Pamela Palenciano, 2023. Photograph: Georgia Ark
Image of the stage piece Arrancamiento (Wrenching), by Pamela Palenciano, 2023. Photograph: Georgia Ark
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Over the course of 2022 and 2023, in collaboration with the team of Museo en Red — renamed Tentacular Museum — La Laboratoria took part in the Critical Node entitled Militant Research, within Connective Tissue, the Museo Reina Sofía’s Study Programme. It also simultaneously drove forward and supported a series of residencies where different collectives, researchers and artists debated an array of subjects, focusing on a starting point of militant research as a political practice that generates collective knowledge. In the Spider’s Web is a two-day programme and comprises different conversations and a stage piece, the culmination of this process of research and creation.

La Laboratoria supports situated knowledge-production process from a feminist perspective. Over a two-year period, a network of protective mothers (mothers who have decided to protect their children from confirmed situations of paternal violence) has conducted research into the complex judicial and psycho-judicial process these mothers are embroiled in, as well as the consequences of falsely applying Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS), a pseudo-scientific theory which hinders the proper investigation of gender-based violence against children and causes the mothers who report it to be criminalised. This enquiry process is reflected in Pamela Palenciano’s stage piece Arrancamiento (Wrenching) and in the publication En la tela de araña. Las violencias contra la infancia y la lucha de las madres protectoras [In the Spider’s Web. Violence Against Children and the Struggle of Protective Mothers] (Traficantes de Sueños and La Laboratoria, 2024), written by an array of authors. Both works look to spotlight the institutional violence protective mothers are subjected to and the widespread vulnerability of children abused by their parents.

By setting out from this situated research, other broader questions arise: What happens when it is children that are subjected to patriarchal violence? Are children properly listened to when they refer to violence (physical, sexual, psychological) in their family? How are sexism, classism and racism a hindrance to this listening? What are the systems of protection that exist and when and how are they activated? What are the interpretations of the legal concept of “in the child’s best interests” and whom do they benefit? And what relation does all of this bear to feminisms and debates around justice? This double programme sets out to tackle these questions, opening up a space of reflection on justice as a collective practice, where mutual protection, support, accountability and reparation go hand in hand with the criticism of patriarchal, racist and classist logics.

Participants

Beatriz Atenciano is a child-youth psychologist specialised in interventions with the children of women who are victims of domestic abuse. She has worked as a psychologist in the consultancy of the Lesbian, Gay, Transexual, Bisexual and Intersexual Collective of Madrid (COGAM) and is co-author of the book Detrás de la pared. Una mirada multidisciplinar acerca de los niños, niñas y adolescentes expuestos a la violencia de género (Serendipity, 2025).

Violeta Assiego is a lawyer specialised in human rights. She conducts research in collaboration with associations and collectives with a gender-, child- and intersectional-based approach. Recently, she has been involved in the studies Aproximación a la monomarentalidad derivada de la violencia de género (An Approach to Single-parent Families Stemming from Gender-based Violence, FAMS, 2023) and Llegar a tiempo. Niñas, niños y adolescentes en situación de riesgo en España (Arriving in Time. Children and Teenagers in a Vulnerable Situation in Spain, Aldeas Infantiles, 2020).

Débora Ávila is a member of La Laboratoria. She supports protective mothers and is a co-author of the report Violencia institucional contra las madres y la infancia (Institutional Violence Against Mothers and Children, Spain’s Ministry of Equality, 2023) and En la tela de araña. Las violencias contra la infancia y la lucha de las madres protectoras (Traficantes de Sueños and La Laboratoria, 2024).

Emanuela Borzacchiello is a historian specialised in the crossroads between femicide violence and political transformation within the framework of Mexican neoliberalism. Her most recent publication is ¡rExistimos! El feminicidio y la telaraña de poderes (Baja Tierra ediciones/Cieg-UNAM, 2023).

Caterina Canyelles is an anthropologist who specialises in the relationship between violence, access to justice and human rights from a feminist perspective, and the author of Machismo y cultura jurídica. Etnografía del proceso judicial de la violencia de género (Virus, 2023).

Susana Draper is a writer, activist and teacher from Uruguay. She is a professor at Princeton University and the author of books such as México 1968: experimentos de la libertad, constelaciones de la democracia (Siglo XXI Editores 2018) and Libres y sin miedo. Horizontes feministas para construir otros sentidos de justicia (Tinta Limón, 2024).

Saida García Casuso is a transfeminist activist. Fat, a dyke, precarious. She is the vice president and co-founder of Euforia. Familias Trans-Aliadas and an expert in socio-community intervention, sexual diversity and gender, specialising in children, youth and family. She is also co-author of the volume Cuando el Estado es violento. Narrativas de violencia contra las mujeres y las disidencias sexuales (Bellaterra, 2023).

Isabel Giménez García is a judge who focuses on children’s rights. Among other undertakings, she is the coordinator of the Association of Women Judges (AMJE).

Laura Iruarrizaga Ballesteros is a lawyer of public international law who specialises in immigration and gender law. She is also a member of the Work Group on Violence from the 8M Commission in Madrid.

Marisa Kohan is a journalist who specialises in gender, development cooperation and human rights. She has covered the struggle of protective mothers in the media for over four years.

Mel de Lima is a mother, activist, decolonial feminist and anti-racist, and a member of Madrecitas, a collective which denounces human rights violations and institutional violence against migrant mothers and their children.

Marta Malo is a writer, translator, activist researcher and a member of La Laboratoria. She is a co-author of Estamos para nosotras. Siete tesis por una práctica radical de los cuidados (Synusia, 2021) and En la tela de araña. Las violencias contra la infancia y la lucha de las madres protectoras (Traficantes de sueños and La Laboratoria, 2024), among others.

Yolanda Mozota holds a degree in Political Science and Sociology from the Complutense University of Madrid, and is a trainer and specialist in Gestalt therapy and a trauma expert at the University of Alcalá. She is a survivor of sexual abuse in childhood.

María Naredo is a lawyer and feminist researcher who is specialised in human rights and gender. Since 1998, she has conducted research into gender-based violence, discrimination and human rights.

Miren Ortubay is a jurist, lawyer, criminal attorney and university lecturer from Spain. She is the head professor of Criminal Law at the University of the Basque Country, and a specialist in gender-based violence and the rights of prisoners.

Laura Pacas is a playwright, stage director and writer. She is part of projects such as Las Caminantas Teatro, made up of female migrant domestic and care workers, and Puente a la Inspiración, which comprises unmentored minors and looks to put their stories on stage.

Pamela Palenciano is an actress, communicator and feminist activist from Andalusia. Her work most notably includes the theatre monologue No solo duelen los golpes (It’s Not Only the Blows that Hurt, 2004), an autobiographical account of gender-based violence through humour and irony.

Marta Pérez is a professor of Anthropology at the Complutense University of Madrid, a member of the militant research association Entrar Afuera and co-author of the report "Violencia institucional contra las madres y la infancia" (Institutional Violence Against Mothers and Children, Spain’s Ministry of Equality, 2023).

Celeste Perosino is an anthropologist, founder of the Intervention Against Violence Collective. She is the co-author of Historias desaparecidas. Arqueología, memoria y violencia política (Brujas, 2000) and Ruptura. Acerca de la integridad en el cuerpo muerto desaparecido (EAE, 2011).

Berta Sepur is a protective mother who has been criminalised in defending the human rights of children who have suffered male sexual abuse. She also fights against the use of Parental Alienation Syndrome in Spanish courthouses. She participates in the Network of Protective Mothers and is a co-author of the publication En la tela de araña. Las violencias contra la infancia y la lucha de las madres protectoras (Traficantes de Sueños and La Laboratoria, 2024).

Justa Teruel is a bookseller and writer who supports protective mothers. She is a co-author of the publication En la tela de araña. Las violencias contra la infancia y la lucha de las madres protectoras (Traficantes de Sueños and La Laboratoria, 2024).

Programa

Actividad pasada Friday, 26 April 2024
Session 1

6pm Pamela Palenciano. Arrancamiento (Wrenching).
— Stage piece by Pamela Palenciano with dramaturgy by Iván Larreynaga and directed by Laura Pacas

7:30pm The Role of the Collective Word in the Fight Against Gender-based Violence
— Conversation between Laura Pacas and Pamela Palenciano (Arrancamiento) and Débora Ávila, Justa Teruel and the protective mothers who have contributed to the book En la tela de araña. Las violencias contra la infancia y la lucha de las madres protectoras (In the Spider’s Web. Violence Against Children and the Struggle of Protective Mothers)

Nouvel Building, Auditorium 400

400 people

Admission

Free, until full capacity is reached. Doors open 30 minutes before the activity

Actividad pasada Saturday, 27 April 2024
Session 2

10:30am Sexual Violence in Childhood. Vulnerability, Trauma, Survival
— Conversation between Yolanda Mozota, Marisa Kohan and other voices. Supported by: Débora Ávila

12:30pm The (Non-)Protection of Children
— Conversation between Beatriz Atenciano, Violeta Assiego, Saida García (Euforia) and Mel de Lima (Colectiva Madrecitas). Supported by: Justa Teruel

4pm The Legal Battle from Feminism
— Conversation between Caterina Canyelles, Isabel Giménez García, María Naredo and Miren Ortubay. Supported by: Marta Pérez

6pm Feminist Horizons of Justice
— Conversation between Emanuela Borzacchiello, Susana Draper, Laura Iruarrizaga Ballesteros (8M Violence Commission) and Celeste Perosino. Supported by: Marta Malo

Nouvel Building, Auditorium 200

200 people

Admission

Free, until full capacity is reached. Doors open 30 minutes before the activity