Fontilles. A 100 year struggle for a leprosy-free world

Fontilles

A 100 year struggle for a leprosy-free world

From 2 December 2010 to 27 February 2011

Exhibition room – Palau de Cerveró (Pl. Cisneros, 4)

From Monday to Friday, from 9 to 20 h.

Palacio de Cerveró [+]

Organised by López Piñero History of Medicine and Science Institute / UV Department for Culture

Curators: Daniel Benito / Nuria Blaya / Josep Bernabé / Teresa Ballester

Anniversaries of hundred-year-old events, like that of Fontilles Sanatorium (Vall de Laguar, Marina Alta) on 17 January 2009, usually prompt a number of events and initiatives that help understand long-standing and vital projects, as is the case with Fontilles. From the initiatives put forward for the celebration, two exhibitions about Fontilles and its 100 year struggle for a leprosy-free world stand out. They will be held at López Piñero Institute (CSIC-Universitat de València). Though from different approaches, both exhibitions complement each other in their view of the history of Fontilles from its outset to date.

Entitled Saint Francis Borgia Leper Colony. The onset of a centenarian project, the first exhibition was organised by the Centre d’Estudis i Investigacions Comarcals Alfons el Vell of Gandia, following their wish to join the celebrations with a series of photographs that show the philanthropic, healthcare, and scientific principles that guided the project in the 1910s and 1920s. The curators are Josep Bernabeu-Mestre and Teresa Ballester Artigues, and it includes more than 50 images, most of them from the Tivoli collection of Alcoi. Many of these photographs were taken by the photographers Isidro Laporta and Josep Tomás. The pictures allow us to get to know the transformation of Fontilles in the early years, the patients’ features, the leprosy varieties they suffered, the type of healthcare, or the rules of the sanatorium –named after Saint Francis Borgia– that those hit by disease had to observe. The exhibition also shows the epidemiological dimension of leprosy and the propaganda system that allowed the project to be spread and alms and donations to be collected for the construction of the Sanatorium.

Curated by Daniel Benito and Nuria Blaya, the second exhibition was organised for the anniversary by Fontilles Association, and now is also part of the current show. It is focused on the philosophy and objectives behind the foundation of the sanatorium which, a hundred years later, continue being at the basis of the activities of the Association: putting an end to the disease’s stigma, taking care of sufferers, and developing research and training. And, above all, trying to bring citizens closer to the more humane side of Fontilles. The exhibition aims to give an optimistic overview of one of the most dreaded diseases in history, and to remind us that it can be cured. But a lot of work still needs to be done in some countries. A hundred years later, Fontilles keeps on struggling in and out of the valley where it is located. Fontilles has a history, but Fontilles is not history.