Exhibition: Els primers trets de Francesc Boix (The first shots by Francesc Boix)

Exhibition "The first shots of Francesc Boix"

From December 16, 2017 to February 25, 2018

Exhibition organized by the Institut d'Estudis Ilerdencs.

This exhibition has its origins in a collection of war photographs of a young Francesc Boix taken between 1937 and 1938. This photographic collection, unpublished until last year, is currently deposited in the National Archive of Catalonia thanks to the Fotoconnexió association and various private contributions from the Dignity Commission and the Ara Llibres Publishing House. The exhibition, which selects more than a hundred photographic reproductions from this source, is accompanied by the catalog Els primers trets by Francesc Boix (Ara Llibres, 2017), with texts by Maria Barbal, Ramon Barnadas, Pep Cruanyes, Ricard Marco and Josep Maria Solé i Sabaté. Francesc Boix (Barcelona 1920 - Paris 1951) went into exile in France where he was interned in various refugee camps. He later joined the work brigades of the French army and during the World War (1939-1945) was captured by the German army. In 1941 he entered the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he worked in the photographic service. The photos he hid, the ones he took and his testimony at the Nuremberg and Dachau trials in 1946 contributed to the conviction of several Nazi leaders. His political commitment to the Unified Socialist Youth of Catalonia led him to the front of Aragon and the Segre at the age of 17 as a photographer for the People’s Army of the Republic. There he portrayed, basically, the daily life of the soldiers and, on some occasions, the front line.

For more information you can download the press release of the exhibition. As a complement to the exhibition on January 20, 2018, the presentation of the documentary “Las dos guerras del fotógrafo Boix” (RTVE, 2015) will take place at 11am. The presentation of the documentary will be attended by Jordi Font, Director of the MUME, Josep Cruanyes, of the Dignity Commission, Ramon Barnadasi Ricard Marco, of the Photoconnection Association.