Sculptures to not return to the youth prison: "I see that things can change"

The Rock of VallèsThe classroom is filled twice every morning and twice every afternoon. They are "more or less" constant groups. The teacher explains that being in a prison, and even more so in the one for Young Offenders, leads to "a lot of mobility". "It's not easy to sustain a group, but when it happens, truly beautiful things emerge," he says. As he speaks, about a dozen boys are progressing on their projects. Some are drawing, some are painting with brushes, and others are making sculptures from cardboard sheets. Like the rest of the inmates at the Young Offenders prison, they are all adults, but under 25 years old.

Someone who goes by Pantera and is 21 years old is drawing by copying a cardboard sculpture made by a classmate. "I've always liked the artistic side, but I didn't practice it on the street. It has helped me to think differently, to see that things can change," he says. Now he draws with wooden pencils, but he prefers to use spray paint –"It represents me more, because I feel it's more spontaneous than a paintbrush"–. This is how they have painted the sculptures, some over a meter high, which have been made in this classroom and exhibited in recent days at the convent of Sant Agustí in Barcelona. Sergio, more shy, says he hopes this exhibition will show that outside of prison they are not "wasting time" here. "We are doing something productive to have other ideas when we leave and not end up back in prison," he states.

Joel also says that the workshop not only helps him not think he's imprisoned – "It distracts your mind, you're locked up here" – but also that it will be useful to him once he's free. In addition to the visual arts workshop, he also attends the music workshop – he sings and composes – and is taking a pastry course. "It's something you can take with you out on the street, a qualification. It's a tool to make it easier to get a job afterwards. I don't want to steal again or anything like that. One changes, wants their family, their little job, their things," he says.

For the exhibition, Joel has represented in a sculpture the doors he has to cross from his cell to the street when he goes out on leave. He sketches it schematically on paper while explaining it. The colored squares represent security doors –"You can't open them, someone from outside has to open them"– and an "effort" is required to get out. In the sculpture, he has only represented three, but in reality, he has to cross seven. "For me, it conveys freedom. It can convey something different to each person. Maybe someone thinks they are squares, or something else, but for me, they are windows that lead me to freedom," he explains.

Group and recognition

Agustín Jiménez is one of the 52 technicians who teach art workshops in prisons. In the classroom, he focuses on strengthening group cohesion dynamics and recognizing other points of view. Here it can happen that someone starts a piece and someone else finishes it because the first author has been released or transferred to another prison. "They are young men who have not had opportunities, many without schooling, and our job is to motivate them, to help them start growing, to stabilize their emotions and their behaviors," he says. "I always tell them that even though they are imprisoned, they must have their minds free; art is a wonderful instrument to overcome any situation that oppresses you," he adds. Jiménez insists that the goal is not for them to become artists, but "for them to acquire a certain sensitivity and conquer spaces" where they had no option to enter before. "Sometimes I have met former students on the street who told me they had visited a museum," he says, moved.

This is agreed by the deputy director of treatment at the Youth Penitentiary Centre, Mireia Trias, who underlines the importance of the "recognition" that the students feel. "Many are not aware that they have creative capacity. And when they discover it, it helps them to feel better." She also values how the workshops are "safe spaces" in prison, where they can "learn to communicate in a non-violent way, understand that the work of others is different and accept it".