HR4RS stamp
Raul Garcia Hemonnet
The initiative that began more than five years ago, with the analysis of the famous photograph by Robert Capa that symbolizes the bombings on the civilian population of Madrid by Franco's aviation during the Spanish Civil War, has attracted the attention of urban planners from universities. French women who last week visited the iconic building in the Madrid neighborhood of Entrevías.
The Rey Juan Carlos University and the Anastasio de Gracia Foundation carry out a multidisciplinary project to reclaim memory in this area of Madrid. Now, it is the excavations carried out in Plaza Robert Capa to understand the urban settlements of the mid-20th century that have attracted the interest of European academics. These researchers work on issues that have to do with the 'archaeology of humility', whose studies focus on the analysis and search for the traces left by the working classes throughout history.
The URJC Fine Arts professors, Tomás Zarza and Miguel Sánchez-Moñita, are accompanying foreign visitors on these visits. As the teachers tell it, the visitors pointed out the multiple layers that this project has, from photography to history, including social archaeology. They have also highlighted the fact that the problem of these humble places that were built in the 60s and 70s disappear and with it the memory of the places and the people is dragged along. As Tomás Zarza points out, “it is worth talking about the most humble and it is worth telling our story since it is a very common story with similar experiences of people who came from different parts of Spain to work in Madrid.”
The French professors who have visited Entrevías are Laurent Codroy-de-Lille (University of Créteil, east of Paris) and Florence Ballif (Gustave Eiffel University, Paris), who have also been accompanied by María Castrillo, professor of Architecture at the University of Valladolid. Today, Tuesday, the teachers of the Rey Juan Carlos University are receiving other academics from the University of Naples.
New dimension for the project
Professors from the URJC and the Anastasio de Gracia Foundation, among other actors, have presented the Robert Capa Plan for Entrevías to the Madrid City Council to convert number 10 Peironcely Street into a cultural center that will give a new boost to the neighborhood. “We want the place to be an interpretation center about the bombings of Madrid, to launch visits to excavations and to carry out murals and artistic interventions such as a sculpture that represents the children in the photo by Robert Capa,” said Professor Miguel Sánchez. -Moñita. The objective is to give value to the setting that the Hungarian photographer immortalized, and which is one train stop from his snapshot exhibited at the Reina Sofía Museum.