5TH GLOBAL CONFERENCE TRAUMA: THEORY AND PRACTICE

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Lisboa, 2015/03/22-24

2015eko martxoan, Inter-disciplinary.net elkarteak Trauma: theory and practice jardunaldiak antolatu zituen. Hiru eguneko jardunaldiotan munduaren hamaika ertzetako ikerlariek parte hartu zuten. MHLIren hitzaldi proposamena onartua izan zen, eta gure ikertaldeak GERNIKA: ARTISTIC REPRESENTATIONS OF TRAUMA izeneko hitzaldia eskaini zuen. Hona hemen hitzaldiaren laburpena:

The bombing of Gernika, on April 26th, 1937, is the quintessential Basque trauma: a tragedy that surpasses the limits of human rational understanding, and, furthermore, a tragedy that the mere historical chronicle cannot redeem. From a different point of view, there are many artistic works aimed at accounting for the bombing, starting from Pablo Picassos ‘Guernica’. Our presentation will focus on these works.

As it happens with all kinds of selection, our path will be incomplete, but we will approach the main artistic responses to the issue of this trauma from different disciplines, as cinema, painting, sculpture or literature. We will focus on some literary texts, for example poems of Paul Éluard, César Vallejo or Koldo Izagirre. On the other hand, we will analyze the musical work (and its staging) ‘Gernika’ (1972) of Mikel Laboa, inspired by the horror caused by the bombing.

Gernika is nowadays symbol of peace and pacifism, a reminder of the horror that violence and war can cause. For Basque people, Gernika is a symbol related to fire, not only for the bombing, but also of having suffered since the Spanish Civil War, 40 years of Franco’s repression.

Ultimately, our paper would like to be a reflection about the possible ‘therapeutic’ values of art, which in diverse representations tries to give a positive answer to the treatment of trauma itself.