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Albert Rose
The Rey Juan Carlos University hosted last Friday, December 10, at its headquarters in Madrid-Argüelles the conference 'The Empire of Fiction. Images and counter-images of Francoism'. The activity revolved around the photographic exhibition of the same name that can be found at the Extremeño and Ibero-American Museum of Contemporary Art in Badajoz.
This exhibition explores the appropriation and artistic resignification of the images of the Portuguese colonial empire. Last Friday's colloquium tried to broaden the issues of the exhibition through the debate on the uses of the image and the Spanish artistic practice in relation to the historical experience and the collective memory of the Franco period.
The day was part of the festival program 'Robert Capa was here', directed by the URJC professors, Miguel Sánchez-Moñita and Tomás Zarza, and Uría Fernández, director of the Cultural and Documentary Area of the Anastasio de Gracia Foundation.
Professor Sánchez-Moñita tells that this colloquium arises through Ana Catarina, one of the speakers and curator of the exhibition. “She knew what we were doing at the festival in reference to her memory and it seemed appropriate to us to bring to Madrid the presentations that are related to that exhibition”.
The presentations were led by Ana Catarina herself, who made a tour of the archive and the memory of the processes of the construction of the dictatorship in Portugal and its relationship with Spain; Ana María Guasch, who presented Francesc Torres' work on memory; and Alfonso Pinilla, who offered a talk on the construction of Franco's image.
A festival in homage to the figure and work of Robert Capa
The work of the pair of photographers, Endre Ernö Friedmann and Gerta Pohorylle, known for being signed under the pseudonym Robert Capa, marked a turning point in the visual history of the XNUMXth century and in the way of portraying war conflicts. 'The Robert Capa Festival was here' aims to honor the figure and work of both photographers, in addition to claiming values such as peace, memory, worker heritage and social equality.
Its origin responds to a social interest established among university students of Fine Arts and other careers about "a part of history that is never told in school," explains Sánchez-Moñita. “Robert Capa's photography became an icon of violence and war. What we have done is relate those images to the present,” she notes.
It is a project that is growing progressively with photography as the cornerstone and creator of symbols. "Every photograph must be explained, it is ambiguous and we need a caption to interpret it," reflects Sánchez-Moñita. For the directors of the festival, it is important to remove the students from the dynamics of the university and lead them to do their own projects outside.
This is the case of the exhibition 'Memory in the margins', at the Ateneo de Madrid, which has had the participation of six artists: three students and three others more established. Each work is accompanied by a process of personal reflection on memory.
Sánchez-Moñita concludes that the festival is working on future projects such as the creation of an interpretation center for the memory of the bombings that Madrid suffered at the hands of German and Italian troops before World War II, in addition to other related actions with history, memory and peace.