The second virtual exhibition, “Mothers, the marvel breaking the shadow. Motherhood in Hispanic cultural production,” is part of a well-established line of research within the Master's Program in Advanced Hispanic Studies: Applications and Research (Department of Spanish Philology, University of Valencia). It arises, once again, from the critical debate developed in the classroom and the desire to share this knowledge with society.

If the first exhibition focused on breaking the shadow, this second edition intensifies the movement, as it is not merely about illuminating what remained hidden, but about maintaining that visibility, fixing it in a shared space, and multiplying its forms of appearance. With this, motherhood ceases to be an opaque or marginal space and becomes a field of inquiry and active cultural production, sustained across different centuries and geographies.

The image that heads this edition, Somni / Dream (2011), by the Valencian artist Carmen Marcos, eloquently encapsulates these tensions. The work presents a recycled crib, transformed into an object that evokes a shopping cart, thus displacing an element traditionally associated with care into the realm of consumption. This gesture of resignification introduces a critical reading of the materiality of motherhood in contemporary societies, so that child-rearing also appears violated by economic dynamics and the logic of utilitarianism. A territory of tensions where mothers retrace their steps and shed their old ways, a continuous becoming toward another form of existence, reconciliation and rupture, loss and conquest, a constant negotiation between identity, desire, and mandate.

At the same time, the hybrid structure of the object (crib, stroller, container) produces a sense of estrangement that forces us to rethink the boundaries of the domestic and the public, both categories permeated by precarity. Therefore, this stroller also evokes destitution, thus dismantling the association of mother-home-protection. Motherhood appears outside of idealization, stripped of its sacred aura, transformed into an artistic artifact that can be observed and deconstructed through the lens of different experiences.

Finally, I would like to emphasize that this project has been made possible thanks to the active involvement of 21 students from the course "Literature, Theater, and Cultural Products: Projection in Contemporary Society" in the 2025-2026 academic year, whose work has sustained the proposal and given it meaning and scope. Her video essays form the core of this exhibition and demonstrate a form of learning that transcends the philology classroom.

Likewise, the Joan Reglà Humanities Library has once again played an essential role. Its collaboration has been crucial in the design and treatment of the materials, solidifying its position as a key agent in the articulation between teaching, research, and knowledge transfer.

Luz C. Souto

Exhibition