Dark Is The Room Where We Sleep

Francesc Torres: Dark Is the Room Where We Sleep, 2007. "The day the excavation was finished, relatives and neighbours from nearby villages got together to honor the victims for the very first time" Photograph: Francesc Torres

Francesc Torres: Dark Is the Room Where We Sleep, 2007. 7.62 caliber Mauser bullet used in the executions Photograph: Francesc Torres

Francesc Torres: Dark Is the Room Where We Sleep, 2007. A detail of the mass grave with the archeologist's grid Photograph: Francesc Torres

Francesc Torres: Dark Is the Room Where We Sleep, 2007. A detail of the ground at the mass grave. Torres wrote: "Any open grave is a book with pages of earth where words are written with letters of bodies, bones, fractures, bullet holes, Mauser bullet shells, hand gun shells, buttons, buckles, clothes, shoes, pencils, glasses, watches, and rings" Photograph: Francesc Torres

Francesc Torres: Dark Is the Room Where We Sleep, 2007. Archeologists at work in Villamayor de los Montes, where 47 Spanish Republican men were shot here on September 16 1936. The youngest was 18, the oldest 61 Photograph: Francesc Torres

Francesc Torres: Dark Is the Room Where We Sleep, 2007. The ground before the excavation, the grave was in an oak grove near a regional road and a landfill Photograph: Francesc Torres

Francesc Torres: Dark Is the Room Where We Sleep, 2007. After the excavation, the bodies were taken for identification and an honorable burial elsewhere. Neighbours lay flowers throughout the excavation process Photograph: Francesc Torres