Bringer of Children, 2014

Fabra i Coats, Centre d’art contemporani, Barcelona

DIE HEILIGE ANNAMIRL VOM LÖCHL (south-east german dialect: The childbearer, Annamirl from the hole) is a female hermit and saint from the region of Dreitannen am Bayerwald (Bohemian Forest, Germany, the only remaining primeval mountain forest in Europe). Very little is known about her early years, only that she was the youngest of fourteen children of a farming family from Katzbach. Around the age of 21 she is supposed to have left her parental home with these famous last words:

«Gegen die Nacht können wir nicht ankämpfen, aber wir können ein Licht anzünden.»

(engl. We must enhance the light not fight the darkness.)

Then she withdrew for the rest of her life into the forest, where she lived alone in a simple hut made of straw, twigs and clay.  (…) Word of the miracle spread fast and soon people from all over the whole county began to wend their way to the well in the forest. There they heard murmur,

rejoicing and children calling from deep inside the earth, that stopped as soon as a stone was thrown into the water. Some people swear to have seen children swim around the bottom of the well like little fishes. Ever since then, the well has become the goal of countless pilgrimages. (…)

(full version text: see PDF)

the artefacts, drawings and photo were shown as part of Capítulo II. Huidas. La ficción como rigour, curated by David Armengol and Martí Manen at the Fabra i Coats, Centre D’art Contemporani, Barcelona