Writing a poem
Presentation in Museo Cerralbo

THE ESPIRAL FAMILY · Cerralbo Museum
With children from migrant families, who attend a center of the Espiral Association, we wrote poems and filmed La Familia Espiral (‘The Espiral Family’, 4:13 min), a collective poetry film inspired by the ornate rooms and glittering ornaments of the Cerralbo Museum in Madrid. We premiered it there on 8 April 2026, and the photographs are from that day.

Lamps illuminate age-old stories.
They are ships in seas of sparkling light.
Our dining table flies in the sky,
it's a blue star.

‘For the participants, the experience of seeing their work screened in a museum has been a milestone they will remember forever – not only because of the recognition, but also the opportunity to share their perspective publicly. “These children have the capacity to create and tell the story of their own reality. If we delve deeper into it, we can uncover a powerful message of integration for our society”, commented [Lilián].’

Still from poetry film The Silenced Cot
Still from poetry film The Silenced Cot
Screening the poetry film in the National Museum of Decorative Arts

THE SILENCED COT · National Museum of Decorative Arts
La cuna silenciada (‘The Silenced Cot’, 4:48 min) grew out of a workshop with young people at risk of social exclusion. They wrote the poem inspired by objects in the National Museum of Decorative Arts, and we filmed together around the museum and in the various store rooms – normally inaccessible to the general public – where the collections are stored in cabinets and boxes, with larger furniture under dust sheets.
The images include two stills from the poetry film and one of the screening in the museum’s foyer.

In the storage room of my house
is silence and a cot
with a dust sheet

From the empty cot where, once,
cries were heard,
now comes only silence

Still from poetry film La Calí
Still from poetry film La Calí
Still from poetry film La Calí

THE CALÍ · Sephardic Museum
We made La Calí (‘The Calí’, 4:50 min) with Spanish Romani women in the Sephardic Museum in Toledo in 2025. Their collective poem is inspired by words they chose in Caló – the language of the Spanish gitanos – mestepén (freedom), kelarí (flamenco dancer), camelar (to love), princharelipén (recognition), Romí (Spanish Romani woman) and penipén (sisterhood). The film is also subtitled in Caló.

The light falling from the high windows of the peaceful Synagogue of El Tránsito, the beautiful sounds of Caló mixed with Spanish, and the expressions of Romani culture in words and images, flow through this film.

I am Calí
daughter of God.
One who danced on the sand,
one who raised her voice
when the world wanted to silence us.
Kelarí of the soul,
my spirit speaks what the silence could not.

LINKS

Poetry Film in Spanish State Museums

Collaborative poetry films, created with diverse communities, inspired by the museums' collections


In the autumn of 2025, with the support of the Spanish Ministry of Culture and State Museums, we led poetry film workshops in the Cerralbo Museum and the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Madrid, and the Sephardic Museum in Toledo. Working with children from migrant families, young people at risk of social exclusion, and Spanish Romani women, each group approached the creative process in very different ways.

In 2026 we premiered The Espiral Family in the Cerralbo Museum and held a private screening of The Silenced Cot in the National Museum of Decorative Arts. You can write to us for details of future screenings.

LINKS