Rocamora studio designed the exhibition following the idea of articulating its content through a cloud of milkmaids that "evaporates" on a scenery representative of the poet's cell. The backlit floor, with a trace of the land of Orihuela, the homeland of Miguel Hernández, is presented as support for the bed and, from there, the ascending cloud of milkmaids emerges, symbolizing the freedom of the stories that escaped from prison hidden in the lid of the milk jug that his wife, Josefina, took him to prison.
The exhibition stands out with an original manuscript from 1941 as the protagonist, accompanied by four children's stories illustrated by a fellow prisoner, a final unfinished posthumous book, personal correspondence and toys made by the poet for his son. The original milkmaid, bearer of verses and stories, completes the exhibition.
Specific objectives of the museographic project
The exhibition takes place in a low-budget context, with a theme initially oriented towards writing and with visual limitations. However, a notable effort has been made to incorporate scenic resources that manage to captivate and maintain the interest of the visitor. Budget management was crucial to make the project a reality, focusing on economic viability and impact through the exhibition setup. To achieve this, the search for low-cost materials was chosen, as well as the use of rental elements. The priority was to create a simple assembly that allowed rapid execution, thus optimizing available resources.
Miguel Hernandez. The Poet Who Made Toys by Rocamora. Photograph courtesy from the studio.
Architectural Context
Exhibition surface
71.50 m².
Description of the architectural environment
The exhibition is located in a square-shaped room, with wooden floors and smooth navy blue walls. The layout has certain limitations, since it is not possible to fix it on the floor or walls, although it has registers on the floor intended for the installation of lighting. The ceiling, white in color and with molding, incorporates a square-shaped electrified rail almost around the perimeter. The layout centralizes the entrance to the room, with the main door located in the center and, in front of it, the access door to the María Moliner Room. On the two remaining sides of the room, there are four large windows on each side, not practicable. In one of these walls of windows, in the lower part, is the room's air conditioning system. These architectural features provide a unique context that influences the layout and presentation of the exhibition.
The relevance of the context is fundamental in the conception of the project, given the impossibility of making fixations on the walls or floor. The need for everything to be self-supporting becomes an essential criterion to avoid damaging the surrounding space. The presence of an aerial installation adds another level of consideration, highlighting the importance of maintaining a close relationship with the security of the room, which has surveillance cameras. The specific way of hanging the milk jugs, used in the installation, not only meets the requirements of structural autonomy, but also facilitates the visualization of the room through the security cameras, providing an additional control and monitoring component to the project design.
Miguel Hernandez. The Poet Who Made Toys by Rocamora. Photograph courtesy from the studio.
Concepts and Design from Discourse
Exhibition content
The exhibition «The poet who made toys. Miguel Hernandez. Absences and last stories for his son", is built around a manuscript by the Oriolano poet from 1941, made during his stay at the Alicante Adult Reformatory, in the months before his death in March 1942. This manuscript contains four stories children and some drawings made in pencil as a key piece from which emerges an entire scenography that collects metaphors of freedom, childhood and absence, which narrates the history and content of the latest stories and poems, the latest thoughts and events in the life of Miguel Hernández and the legacy dedicated to his son, Manuel Miguel Hernández Manresa.
The exhibition covers what are possibly the poet's last writings, these four children's stories turned into a booklet illustrated by a fellow prisoner, Eusebio Oca, as the main piece, but not the only one; "critical contributions about this final moment of his work, paintings by those who accompanied him in his final days, contributions from those who have studied this example of universal literature, it covers other moments of the exhibition [...]" as the curator describes, José Carlos Rovira; a last unfinished posthumous book, the Songbook and romance book of absences; personal correspondence, and toys and containers for carrying food that served as secret carriers of verses, letters and stories, and other objects related to them.
Exploration of the relationship between discourse and architecture
An attempt is made to make a representation of his native location, his physical location in prison, and his desire for freedom.
Other materials have been sought such as illustrations of cellmates, toys that he made for his son, or even the bed to support the speech. These exhibition materials were defined together with the curator to complete the exhibition discourse.
Miguel Hernandez. The Poet Who Made Toys by Rocamora. Photograph courtesy from the studio.
All of this is museographically supported by the representation of the cell through the bed, the backlit floor built with the texture of the earth from the lemon orchards of Orihuela (and real earth within the letters), and above, the cloud of milkmaids that represents the dream of freedom, through the object (milkmaid) that allowed him to write stories and letters for his family and friends.
The graph, in addition to having a timeline of the most important milestones, also represents the characters that surround Miguel Hernández.
Museum Project
Project memory
«Miguel Hernández: the poet who made toys. `Last stories and absences for his son'"
An original manuscript from 1941, a pile of sheets of toilet paper sewn with thread on top, four children's stories and some pencil drawings; the key pieces from which a small universe emerges made of metaphors of freedom, childhood and absence. A universe that materializes in a museum exhibition and that narrates the history and content of the latest stories and poems, the latest thoughts and events in the life of Miguel Hernández and the legacy dedicated to his son Manuel Miguel Hernández Manresa, Manolillo.
An exciting project, because of its proximity, and special for its content, possibly the poet's last writings from the Alicante Adult Reformatory where he arrived in 1941 and where he died of tuberculosis a few months later, in March 1942. The exhibition is developed around a set that recreates the poet's cell, a space that witnesses his latest works, and from which a cloud of milkmaids ascends, representing the freedom of the word, flying over the walls of the Alicante prison. Four children's stories turned into a book illustrated by a fellow prisoner, Eusebio Oca; a last unfinished posthumous book, the Songbook and romance book of absences; personal correspondence with his house, with his Josefina, with his family; toys made by the poet for his son, and the original milkmaid, bearer of secrets, verses and stories. The exhibition space, another unique and spectacular place, the Anteroom of the María Moliner Reading Room in the National Library of Spain.
Miguel Hernandez. The Poet Who Made Toys by Rocamora. Photograph courtesy from the studio.
Milkmaids
This exhibition is built and articulated through a cloud of tin milk jugs that "evaporate", as an allegory of freedom, of how the poet managed to escape from prison and achieve freedom through his stories and poems hidden in the lid of the milk jug that can be seen in the exhibition.
Every time he visited his wife, Josefina Manresa, in the Alicante prison, he brought her goat's milk in a milk jug, displayed in the exhibition case. When they said goodbye to her, the poet gave her some small handwritten balls of paper that she hid in the lid of the milk jug. These little balls collected by Josefina later contained writings that, as if it were the spirit of the poet, as an interface between prison and freedom, come out hidden in that humble tin milk jug, reaching freedom and reaching us.
Floor
The floor of the cell, backlit, on display, is a real copy of the dirt floor of a lemon orchard in Orihuela, recently watered and crackled by the sun, transferred to this pavement as a vaporous lamp that serves as support for the bed and from there, to the rising cloud of the milkmaids who escape and achieve freedom.
In the bed of illuminated bed, succession of the ground, hides inside in small cracks real earth from the orchard of Orihuela, the hometown of Miguel Hernández, real earth that has been deposited in Madrid, in order to have the spirit of the poet there, along with the last stories and toys built for his son in prison months before he died.
Miguel Hernandez. The Poet Who Made Toys by Rocamora. Photograph courtesy from the studio.
Museographic discourse
The museographic discourse is built from a central scenography that recreates the cell that the poet occupied in the Adult Reformatory of Alicante where a metal bed structure is included, and that reproduces a texture that evokes the land of Orihuela, land of Miguel Hernández, in a testimonial way, both for the floor and as a mattress for the metal bed base.
Starting from the cell, a milk jug rises from the bed, followed by a whole cloud of brass milk jugs that recreate that container in whose lid messages were placed back and forth, original manuscripts, children's stories and letters to his house. . A cloud that represents an allegory of freedom, a carrier of messages that manages to penetrate the walls of that physical and mental cell that encloses the poet. As part of the scenography, the manuscript of children's stories, a key piece of the exhibition, in a display case.
The rest of the exhibition is basically made up of three parts: first, the lobby, with a marked entrance to receive the exhibition; On the other hand, a graphic canvas along the entire side that includes a biographical timeline of Miguel Hernández, starting from the moment of his arrest on the Huelva border with Portugal in 1939, until his death in the infirmary of the Alicante Adult Reformatory in March 1942, and which narrates the main events related to the poet's life and to the objects and writings that are the protagonists of the exhibition, giving them historical and emotional contexts.
Finally, a line of display cases on the opposite side to the previous one, which houses original objects, reproductions and facsimiles that accompany the scenery and complete it, which nourish the exhibition and contextualize the story of Miguel Hernández's last years, and whose information complete the graphic canvas and an audiovisual one.
The tour of the museum architecture is circular and clockwise.
Miguel Hernandez. The Poet Who Made Toys by Rocamora. Photograph courtesy from the studio.
Accessibility
The project is accessible on a physical level, but also cognitive and sensory. All interpretation resources included in the proposal are governed by Universal Design guidelines (font type and size, reading distance, chromatic contrast) for the democratization of information.
The free space has the minimum dimensions for accessibility.
The graphics, audiovisual and showcases have an appropriate height for all audiences (adults, children, people in wheelchairs). There is an ambient audiovisual.
Construction Innovations
Highlighted construction details in the project
The exhibition's innovative project incorporates a ceiling composed of suspended "milk churns," arranged in a way that suggests the image of a cloud in flight. This visually striking approach has been conceived taking into account the perspectives of surveillance cameras, ensuring that they do not interfere with visibility. The choice of a Truss structure is based on its profitability in terms of rental, its robustness and the ability to stabilize without causing damage to the ground. For the bases of the pieces, EPS is used, not only for its contribution to reducing costs and production times, but also for the flexibility it offers in the creation of attractive geometries to support the works.
The use of printable textile with eco-solvent inks adds a creative dimension, allowing the customization of surfaces in a sustainable way. In addition, the initiative to recycle BNE display cases stands out, integrating them in a unique way into the exhibition design. The backlit floor, constructed with the actual texture of the earth from Orihuela's lemon orchards within the letters, adds a narrative and sensory layer, visually connecting the viewer to the thematic context of the exhibition.
Sustainability and Reuse
The sustainable approach in the construction of the exhibition is manifested through conscious strategies, highlighting notable examples of reuse of materials and elements. The decision to opt for truss rental not only translates into an economic measure, but also implies the reuse of an existing structure, thus minimizing the demand for resources and reducing the environmental impact associated with the production of new elements. Likewise, the choice to reuse the display cases of the National Library of Spain (BNE), providing them with new bases for the presentation of documents, exemplifies an effective commitment to sustainability by giving a second life to already existing elements. These strategies not only demonstrate a responsible approach to resources, but also contribute to the construction of an exhibition that reflects values of resilience and environmental awareness.
The exhibition stands out with an original manuscript from 1941 as the protagonist, accompanied by four children's stories illustrated by a fellow prisoner, a final unfinished posthumous book, personal correspondence and toys made by the poet for his son. The original milkmaid, bearer of verses and stories, completes the exhibition.
Specific objectives of the museographic project
The exhibition takes place in a low-budget context, with a theme initially oriented towards writing and with visual limitations. However, a notable effort has been made to incorporate scenic resources that manage to captivate and maintain the interest of the visitor. Budget management was crucial to make the project a reality, focusing on economic viability and impact through the exhibition setup. To achieve this, the search for low-cost materials was chosen, as well as the use of rental elements. The priority was to create a simple assembly that allowed rapid execution, thus optimizing available resources.
Miguel Hernandez. The Poet Who Made Toys by Rocamora. Photograph courtesy from the studio.
Architectural Context
Exhibition surface
71.50 m².
Description of the architectural environment
The exhibition is located in a square-shaped room, with wooden floors and smooth navy blue walls. The layout has certain limitations, since it is not possible to fix it on the floor or walls, although it has registers on the floor intended for the installation of lighting. The ceiling, white in color and with molding, incorporates a square-shaped electrified rail almost around the perimeter. The layout centralizes the entrance to the room, with the main door located in the center and, in front of it, the access door to the María Moliner Room. On the two remaining sides of the room, there are four large windows on each side, not practicable. In one of these walls of windows, in the lower part, is the room's air conditioning system. These architectural features provide a unique context that influences the layout and presentation of the exhibition.
The relevance of the context is fundamental in the conception of the project, given the impossibility of making fixations on the walls or floor. The need for everything to be self-supporting becomes an essential criterion to avoid damaging the surrounding space. The presence of an aerial installation adds another level of consideration, highlighting the importance of maintaining a close relationship with the security of the room, which has surveillance cameras. The specific way of hanging the milk jugs, used in the installation, not only meets the requirements of structural autonomy, but also facilitates the visualization of the room through the security cameras, providing an additional control and monitoring component to the project design.
Miguel Hernandez. The Poet Who Made Toys by Rocamora. Photograph courtesy from the studio.
Concepts and Design from Discourse
Exhibition content
The exhibition «The poet who made toys. Miguel Hernandez. Absences and last stories for his son", is built around a manuscript by the Oriolano poet from 1941, made during his stay at the Alicante Adult Reformatory, in the months before his death in March 1942. This manuscript contains four stories children and some drawings made in pencil as a key piece from which emerges an entire scenography that collects metaphors of freedom, childhood and absence, which narrates the history and content of the latest stories and poems, the latest thoughts and events in the life of Miguel Hernández and the legacy dedicated to his son, Manuel Miguel Hernández Manresa.
The exhibition covers what are possibly the poet's last writings, these four children's stories turned into a booklet illustrated by a fellow prisoner, Eusebio Oca, as the main piece, but not the only one; "critical contributions about this final moment of his work, paintings by those who accompanied him in his final days, contributions from those who have studied this example of universal literature, it covers other moments of the exhibition [...]" as the curator describes, José Carlos Rovira; a last unfinished posthumous book, the Songbook and romance book of absences; personal correspondence, and toys and containers for carrying food that served as secret carriers of verses, letters and stories, and other objects related to them.
Exploration of the relationship between discourse and architecture
An attempt is made to make a representation of his native location, his physical location in prison, and his desire for freedom.
Other materials have been sought such as illustrations of cellmates, toys that he made for his son, or even the bed to support the speech. These exhibition materials were defined together with the curator to complete the exhibition discourse.
Miguel Hernandez. The Poet Who Made Toys by Rocamora. Photograph courtesy from the studio.
All of this is museographically supported by the representation of the cell through the bed, the backlit floor built with the texture of the earth from the lemon orchards of Orihuela (and real earth within the letters), and above, the cloud of milkmaids that represents the dream of freedom, through the object (milkmaid) that allowed him to write stories and letters for his family and friends.
The graph, in addition to having a timeline of the most important milestones, also represents the characters that surround Miguel Hernández.
Museum Project
Project memory
«Miguel Hernández: the poet who made toys. `Last stories and absences for his son'"
An original manuscript from 1941, a pile of sheets of toilet paper sewn with thread on top, four children's stories and some pencil drawings; the key pieces from which a small universe emerges made of metaphors of freedom, childhood and absence. A universe that materializes in a museum exhibition and that narrates the history and content of the latest stories and poems, the latest thoughts and events in the life of Miguel Hernández and the legacy dedicated to his son Manuel Miguel Hernández Manresa, Manolillo.
An exciting project, because of its proximity, and special for its content, possibly the poet's last writings from the Alicante Adult Reformatory where he arrived in 1941 and where he died of tuberculosis a few months later, in March 1942. The exhibition is developed around a set that recreates the poet's cell, a space that witnesses his latest works, and from which a cloud of milkmaids ascends, representing the freedom of the word, flying over the walls of the Alicante prison. Four children's stories turned into a book illustrated by a fellow prisoner, Eusebio Oca; a last unfinished posthumous book, the Songbook and romance book of absences; personal correspondence with his house, with his Josefina, with his family; toys made by the poet for his son, and the original milkmaid, bearer of secrets, verses and stories. The exhibition space, another unique and spectacular place, the Anteroom of the María Moliner Reading Room in the National Library of Spain.
Miguel Hernandez. The Poet Who Made Toys by Rocamora. Photograph courtesy from the studio.
Milkmaids
This exhibition is built and articulated through a cloud of tin milk jugs that "evaporate", as an allegory of freedom, of how the poet managed to escape from prison and achieve freedom through his stories and poems hidden in the lid of the milk jug that can be seen in the exhibition.
Every time he visited his wife, Josefina Manresa, in the Alicante prison, he brought her goat's milk in a milk jug, displayed in the exhibition case. When they said goodbye to her, the poet gave her some small handwritten balls of paper that she hid in the lid of the milk jug. These little balls collected by Josefina later contained writings that, as if it were the spirit of the poet, as an interface between prison and freedom, come out hidden in that humble tin milk jug, reaching freedom and reaching us.
Floor
The floor of the cell, backlit, on display, is a real copy of the dirt floor of a lemon orchard in Orihuela, recently watered and crackled by the sun, transferred to this pavement as a vaporous lamp that serves as support for the bed and from there, to the rising cloud of the milkmaids who escape and achieve freedom.
In the bed of illuminated bed, succession of the ground, hides inside in small cracks real earth from the orchard of Orihuela, the hometown of Miguel Hernández, real earth that has been deposited in Madrid, in order to have the spirit of the poet there, along with the last stories and toys built for his son in prison months before he died.
Miguel Hernandez. The Poet Who Made Toys by Rocamora. Photograph courtesy from the studio.
Museographic discourse
The museographic discourse is built from a central scenography that recreates the cell that the poet occupied in the Adult Reformatory of Alicante where a metal bed structure is included, and that reproduces a texture that evokes the land of Orihuela, land of Miguel Hernández, in a testimonial way, both for the floor and as a mattress for the metal bed base.
Starting from the cell, a milk jug rises from the bed, followed by a whole cloud of brass milk jugs that recreate that container in whose lid messages were placed back and forth, original manuscripts, children's stories and letters to his house. . A cloud that represents an allegory of freedom, a carrier of messages that manages to penetrate the walls of that physical and mental cell that encloses the poet. As part of the scenography, the manuscript of children's stories, a key piece of the exhibition, in a display case.
The rest of the exhibition is basically made up of three parts: first, the lobby, with a marked entrance to receive the exhibition; On the other hand, a graphic canvas along the entire side that includes a biographical timeline of Miguel Hernández, starting from the moment of his arrest on the Huelva border with Portugal in 1939, until his death in the infirmary of the Alicante Adult Reformatory in March 1942, and which narrates the main events related to the poet's life and to the objects and writings that are the protagonists of the exhibition, giving them historical and emotional contexts.
Finally, a line of display cases on the opposite side to the previous one, which houses original objects, reproductions and facsimiles that accompany the scenery and complete it, which nourish the exhibition and contextualize the story of Miguel Hernández's last years, and whose information complete the graphic canvas and an audiovisual one.
The tour of the museum architecture is circular and clockwise.
Miguel Hernandez. The Poet Who Made Toys by Rocamora. Photograph courtesy from the studio.
Accessibility
The project is accessible on a physical level, but also cognitive and sensory. All interpretation resources included in the proposal are governed by Universal Design guidelines (font type and size, reading distance, chromatic contrast) for the democratization of information.
The free space has the minimum dimensions for accessibility.
The graphics, audiovisual and showcases have an appropriate height for all audiences (adults, children, people in wheelchairs). There is an ambient audiovisual.
Construction Innovations
Highlighted construction details in the project
The exhibition's innovative project incorporates a ceiling composed of suspended "milk churns," arranged in a way that suggests the image of a cloud in flight. This visually striking approach has been conceived taking into account the perspectives of surveillance cameras, ensuring that they do not interfere with visibility. The choice of a Truss structure is based on its profitability in terms of rental, its robustness and the ability to stabilize without causing damage to the ground. For the bases of the pieces, EPS is used, not only for its contribution to reducing costs and production times, but also for the flexibility it offers in the creation of attractive geometries to support the works.
The use of printable textile with eco-solvent inks adds a creative dimension, allowing the customization of surfaces in a sustainable way. In addition, the initiative to recycle BNE display cases stands out, integrating them in a unique way into the exhibition design. The backlit floor, constructed with the actual texture of the earth from Orihuela's lemon orchards within the letters, adds a narrative and sensory layer, visually connecting the viewer to the thematic context of the exhibition.
Sustainability and Reuse
The sustainable approach in the construction of the exhibition is manifested through conscious strategies, highlighting notable examples of reuse of materials and elements. The decision to opt for truss rental not only translates into an economic measure, but also implies the reuse of an existing structure, thus minimizing the demand for resources and reducing the environmental impact associated with the production of new elements. Likewise, the choice to reuse the display cases of the National Library of Spain (BNE), providing them with new bases for the presentation of documents, exemplifies an effective commitment to sustainability by giving a second life to already existing elements. These strategies not only demonstrate a responsible approach to resources, but also contribute to the construction of an exhibition that reflects values of resilience and environmental awareness.
