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What were you wearing?


The installation invites the audience to understand that it was never about the clothing.


Getting rid of the clothes will never be enough to bring peace or comfort to those who survived. 


It is necessary for us as a society to question what allowed us, in first place, to ask that question: what were you wearing?
Costa Rica will showcase this exhibition, all across the country, in the 7 provinces.


Organized by iz Solutions the installation will be in 2025 and 2026 it will be at the central and regional campuses of universities across the countryEARTH, UCR, UNA, TEC, and in collaboration with Desde -Cero-Comunicación, other institutions. 

During the year 2025 the exhibition has been in:

  1. National Gallery Costa Rica
  2. EARTH University
  3. University of Costa Rica Atlantic Branch
  4. University of Costa Rica West Branch
  5. Technological Institute (TEC) Caribbean Branch
  6. Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica
  7. Technological Institute (TEC) Branch San Carlos
  8. Local Government El Guarco
  9. Ministry of Education (MEP)
  10. University of Costa Rica Central Branch

It will continue in 2026 in more universities and institutions


 

Watch the video


This is how the opening took place at the National Gallery, Costa Rica, on June 6, 2025


The exhibition in the National Gallery

Our goal

The exhibition What were you wearing? will be held in Costa Rica. It’s an initiative that started in the University of Arkansas and the Kansas University’s Sexual Assault Prevention & Education Center. 

This exhibition seeks to raise awareness about sexual violence and fighting against the social guilt that survivors experience when they are wrongly accused that they could avoid sexual assault if they changed their way of dressing.

 

About the exhibition

What Were You Wearing? is composed by replicas of the clothing that the survivors of sexual abuse were wearing in the moment of the assault. Each outfit is accompanied by small and punctual fragments of the testimonies of these brave people who decided to share their experiences to make visible the violence and question the stigmas around the subject.

How it started?

Designed by the Kansas University’s Sexual Assault Prevention & Education Center’s Director, Jen Brockman, and Dr. Mary Wyandt-Hiebert.

They were inspired by Dr. Mary Simmerling’s poem “What I Was Wearing”. They both wanted to create a project that brings back to the community the responsibility of facing a response to that question, and at the same time, humanizing the surviving person in such answer.

During these 10 years, the installation has been exhibited in multiple countries worldwide.