Barcelona - Perpignan - Rivesaltes - La Jonquera - Argelès-sur-Mer - Collioure - Elne
Exilium. Exili. Exil. Exilio. The Latin root is common on both sides of the Pyrenees. The Catalan word "exilis", "exiles" in French, is the name chosen for this innovative cross-border project around memory sites of exiles related to the Spanish Civil War and World War II.
Financed by the European program INTERREG POCTEFA (Operational Program for Territorial Cooperation Spain-France-Andorra), the innovative project brings together the Ribesaltes Camp Memorial, the Argelers de la Marenda Camp Memorial, the Elna Maternity Hospital, the Royal Castle de Cotlliure, Department of the Eastern Pyrenees, the Jonquera Exile Memorial Museum, the Democratic Memorial of Catalonia as well as the Directorate General of Democratic Memory of the Generalitat of Catalonia around a common contemporary memory from the beginning from the Civil War in 1936 until the border was closed in 1946. A decade during which this cross-border territory saw refugees arriving from the South during the Retreat but also resistance fighters and Jews fleeing the Vichy government and the Nazi occupier.
The aim of this structuring and innovative project, 65% financed by the European Union, is to promote the circulation of visitors, to share scientific and cultural resources and to amplify the actions of these seven institutions from one side and the other of the border
Among the main actions scheduled within the framework of the EXILIS project we find:
- the creation of a joint and harmonized signage of the cross-border memory spaces linked to the forced displacement of population
- the creation of a "Pass-Mémoire" that will facilitate access to all of the network's spaces;
- the launch of a database on the Spanish Republican exile
- the production of maps of cross-border memorial routes (between the department of the Eastern Pyrenees and the regions of Girona)
- the organization of traveling temporary exhibitions
- the production of pedagogical content and common cross-border workshops
- the organization of colloquiums and seminars
- the realization of exchange and training days, one of which will be for memorial associations of the Eastern Pyrenees and the Principality
- the installation of harmonized touch screens at the entrance to members' spaces to provide information on the network or historical information on each site (texts, photographs, files, maps).
In collaboration with memorial associations, the EXILIS network will be able to propose other complementary topics related to this decade of history.
