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.
During 2025 the installation will be at:
June 6 - 29 : National Gallery
July 15-17: EARTH University
August 4-28 - UCR Turrialba Campus
September 8-26 - UCR San Ramón Campus
October 3-19 - TEC Limón Campus
October 24-November 6 - TEC San Carlos
November 18-December 11 - TEC Cartago
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
From June and throughout 2025
and 2026
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. The exhibition was first inaugurated in Costa Rica at the Cultural Center of Spain with the support of UNESCO’s Office in San José on October 10th, 2018.
EARTH University
inauguration
📅 Tuesday, June 15th
⏰ 7:00 pm
🖼️ EARTH University
Confirm attendance before June 7th
Learn more about this 2025 edition, organized in collaboration with the Spanish Cultural Center