The Centre du Photojournalisme in Perpigan, in partnership with the Camp of Rivesaltes Memorial, is organizing an exhibition of photos of the Spanish Civil War called L’Espagne déchirée, 1936-1939 ( Spain a torn country, 1936-1939), from March 16 through May 17, 2017 at Perpignan’s Couvant des Minimes and at the Mémorial of the Camp of Rivesaltes from March 17 through May 17, 2017 (then in Barcelona at the Institut Français).
The exhibition, around one hundred historical photos of which many are previously unseen, aims at presenting the most complete panorama possible of the Spanish Civil War. It covers from the beginning of the military uprising on July 17 and 18, 1936, up to the final victory on April 1, 1939 of the nationalist troupes, led by General Francisco Franco, against the republican forces.
This fratricide conflict resulted in some 500,000 deaths eighty years ago and cut a country in half, staying that way for close to forty years under the dictatorial regime of General Franco until 1975. Often considered a “prelude” to the Second World War, the Spanish War, a fierce and cruel opposition between the “two Spains”, was also marked by foreign interventions in combat. Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy supported the rebel armies, whereas Stalin’s USSR and the International Brigade supported the Frente Popular in power in Madrid.
Showing the two sides of the war, the exhibition presents the conflict in a didactic and educational manner, with a chronology of all these major events and players: the military coup, the Madrid defense, the squadron of Malraux, the Alcazar of Toledo, Guernica, the great battles of Belchite, Teruel, and Erbe, the International Brigade, the German Condor Legion, the killing of religious figures, the revolution in Catalonia, Retirada…
It includes unpublished photos from the AFP’s archives as well as shots coming from the Nothomb collections (Malraux squadron), from journalist Michel Lefebvre, and from the Spanish archives recently published on the war. At the same time, the Mémorial du Camp de Rivesaltes is presenting a series of photos on the Retirada and the fate of the Spanish republican exiles after the war, in France and abroad.
L’Espagne déchirée 1936-1939 : il y a 80 ans, un conflit fratricide
From March 16 through May 17, 2017
Centre International du Photojournalisme / Couvent des Minimes
24 rue François Rabelais
66000 Perpignan
France
From March 17 through May 17, 2017
Mémorial du Camp de Rivesaltes
Avenue Christian Bourquin
66600 Salses-le-Château
France
