"Gods" inaugurated, the exhibition at the UA Headquarters in Torrevieja that explores the origins of Holy Week.

Yesterday afternoon, the exhibition "Godhoods, a journey from the origins of Holy Week" was inaugurated in the Vista Alegre exhibition hall. This is the result of a research and knowledge transfer project led by Jesús Segarra-Saavedra, director of the University of Alicante Campus in Torrevieja, who curated the project together with Francisco Montesinos, president of the Santísima Vera Cruz de la Convocatoria y Nuestro Padre Jesús en Samaria brotherhood.

As if it were a procession, the exhibition invites visitors to take a tour of much of the artistic, cultural, and historical heritage of the fifteen brotherhoods that make up the Torrevieja Brotherhood Association.

The exhibition includes pieces donated by the Church of the Immaculate Conception, such as the antique Christ of the Flagellation; the brotherhoods themselves, such as the antique suit of Our Lady of Sorrows dating from the first third of the 20th century, which was embroidered by Antoñita Barceló and saved by the Moscardó family during the Civil War; as well as private collections. It also displays the Blanco brothers' sculptor's bench, currently used by the artist Víctor García Villalgordo, as an example of the transition between the past and present history of Holy Week in Torrevieja. From it, sculptures such as the Holy Sepulchre and Our Lady of Sorrows, as well as the Last Supper and Our Lady of Victory and Our Lady of Silence, have emerged.

These are just a few of the more than 320 objects, including sculptures, thrones, busts, carvings, skirts, tunics, banners, torches, vestments, processional marches, lanterns, ornaments, medals, and prints, that Segarra and Montesinos have identified, cataloged, and displayed in the exhibition. In addition, this project has led to the creation of the heritage collection entitled "Digital Archive of Torrevieja Holy Week Posters," which is now available in the UA Repository: https://rua.ua.es/dspace/handle/10045/153118

The inauguration was attended by, among others, Eduardo Dolón, Mayor of Torrevieja; Agustina Esteve, Delegate of the Consell in Alicante; Rosario Martínez Chazarra, Mayor of Torrevieja City Council; Antonio Quesada, Councilor for Culture; Rosa Cañón, Concha Sala, and Trudy Páez, councilors of Torrevieja City Council; Francisco Beltrán, President of the Junta Mayor de Cofradías de Torrevieja (JMC); commissioners Jesús Segarra and Francisco Montesinos; as well as Laura Pérez Aguirre, an intern at the UA Headquarters in Torrevieja and responsible for the graphic aspect of the project.

This initiative was managed by the University of Alicante headquarters in Torrevieja, coordinated jointly with the Torrevieja Association of Brotherhoods, and supervised by the Department of Culture of the Torrevieja City Council. It has enjoyed the collaboration of all the Torrevieja brotherhoods, as well as Joaquín Carrión, Carmelo Navarro, Víctor García Villalgordo, Tamara Ramos Martín, Francisco Reyes Prieto Pérez, Antonio Aniorte Guerrero, and Adrián Ballester Lozano, among others.

Likewise, its development has also required the collaboration of the University of Alicante's Compubes research group: communication and specific audiences, the UA Department of Communication and Social Psychology, and Televisión Torrevieja (TVT), which has kindly provided the promotional videos for Torrevieja's Holy Week, broadcast since 2009.