Exhibition “February 1939. The Exile Through the Eyes of Manuel Moros”

In collaboration with the Perpignan City Council. Presentation of eighty previously unpublished photographs of the Republican retreat. As part of the events programmed to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and the beginning of Republican exile, the Exile Memorial Museum will present 80 unique photographs of the Colombian-born French painter, Manuel Moros. This artist, who lived in Collioure during the decade of the 1930s, found himself at the forefront of one of the greatest humanitarian tragedies of that era. His photographs show a total empathy with those survivors who crossed the border during those winter days of 1939.

He becomes, without doubt, a direct witness, a reporter of images, revealing the real suffering of that great body of people who crossed the border to escape the Franco occupation. Specifically, the majority of his photographs were taken at the passage of Portbou-Cerbère between 5 and 10 February. Homeless children, exhausted women and men and defeated soldiers are the subjects of his photographs. Photographic images that remained hidden for many years and now, for the first time, we have the opportunity to see all together. In short, eighty photographic snapshots that are now one of the best eyewitnesses of the Republican exodus.

Opening: 31 January at 12 noon

Exhibition: 1 February to 29 March 2009