This edition highlights issues like the Samudaripen/Porrajmos memorialisation, transnational heritage projects, and Argentina’s ESMA Memory Site Museum. Through diverse articles and reviews, we explore the role of archives, cultural heritage, and multidisciplinary approaches to memory. We remain committed to fostering critical reflection and collaborative action for a more just society.
By Jordi GuixĂ©, Director of the European Observatory on Memories Introducing our new issue of Observing Memories proves to be quite a challenge against the backdrop of bombs falling near our homelands, the loss of lives among civilians of all ages and the repeated violation of human rights, starting with the fundamental right to life. …
Cover picture: Wall painting âHuman lives, migrant livesâ (La Model, 2022),
produced by the students of the Art Baccalaureate of La Industrial High School in Barcelona within the transversal workshop âHistorical memory, Rap and Graffitiâ organized by the EUROM in collaboration with
the popular school Versembrant.
The painting has been coordinated by the urban artist Lucas Vico and was developed in parallel with the hip hop and rap music workshops the students went through in November and December 2021.
Cover picture: âAixafem el feixismeâ [âCrush Fascismâ]. Can BatllĂł, Barcelona. Mural painting and picture by Roc Blackblock. Based on the original picture by Pere CatalĂ Pic. The work is part of the project âMurs de BitĂ colaâ (Log walls) Our Observing Memories magazine has reached its fifth edition. It has been another complex and complicated year …
The work of memory is a process. The conclusions of comparative examples and theoretical cases help us â or should help us â to learn from history and its memorial transmission and apply new formulas that draw on more and better engagement from our fellow citizens. This is the engagement that guides our actions, research and efforts to mobilize professional academic processes in and with society in order to build collective memory. The challenge is to hold onto the tension between the varying scales and dimensions of such a process or processes. And this is precisely what we want to share in the present issue of Observing Memories. The aim of our journal is to reflect, learn and share knowledge, but always with a multifaceted engagement from all quarters.
This issue of Observing Memories represents the consolidation of a high quality multidisciplinary journal which explores the past from a permanent trans-European and international perspective. With each issue published, the Observatoryâs reputation has grown and we are delighted to present our latest edition, published just after the exhumation of the dictator Francisco Franco from the mausoleum of the Valley of the Fallen. The removal of Francoâs remains is an important step for democracy both in Spain and in Europe. It means that we can now begin to consider this place of terror from the perspective of heritage and culture â perhaps even as a tourist destination, once tribute has been paid to the memory of the thousands of victims buried there illicitly by the dictatorship.
Cover picture: View from the bedroom, HospederĂa Santa Cruz, Valley of the Fallen (Cuelgamuros) | Silvia Marimon, 2018. By Jordi GuixĂ©, director of the European Observatory on Memories (EUROM) of the University of Barcelona’s Solidarity Foundation A year ago we published the first issue of Observing Memories, a digital magazine that aimed to offer a …
By Jordi GuixĂ© i Coromines, Director After the publication of EUROMâs first book, Past and Power: public policies on memory. Debates, from global to local (Edicions UB, 2016), it is my honour to introduce the first issue of our electronic magazine: Observing Memories. This publication aims to regularly reflect the transnational, multidisciplinary and active work …