Victims of Franco’s regime, they were forced to leave Spain to save their lives.

It's about "1939: Spanish Republican Exile", "Pathways of Exile" by Philippe Gaussot, and "Blood is not Water" by Pierre Gonnord, a great documentary and artistic exhibition and two photographic exhibitions that reconstruct and pay homage to the protagonists of exile.

The sample '1939: Spanish Republican Exile' comprises a heterogeneous set of plastic work, everyday objects, photographs, sound files, posters and publications that embody the faithful testimony of a vanguard of intellectuals, scientists, writers and artists of all kinds who in 1939 left for exile. Hundreds of photographers from all over the world, such as David Seymour, Robert Capa and Agustí Centelles, harshly portrayed the tragedy of the refugees, as well as the photographer Francesc Boix, recognized as one of the great witnesses of the 20th century for the images taken during his imprisonment in Mauthausen. Likewise, Josep Bartolí gave testimony through his drawings of his tragic experience in the French concentration camps. Or Ramón Gaya, who after leaving the Argelès camp and before leaving for Mexico, found encouragement to paint some of the most emblematic paintings of exile.

The horror of the Nazi extermination was also reflected in a series of magnificent works presented in La Arquería by the Catalan artist Josep Franch-Clapers, in addition to the writers Jorge Semprún and Joaquim Amat-Piniella, interns in Buchenwald and Mathausen.

The ships of exile, such as the 'Stanbrook' that arrived at the Algerian port of Oran, or those that departed for America, such as the 'Sinaia' and the 'Winnipeg', have a protagonist space in the exhibition. The Republican exile in Mexico was one of the most important, documented here through different publications. The Caribbean, Chile and Argentina were also prominent cultural hotbeds of exile. The editorial work carried out there by Rafael Alberti, Francisco Ayala or María Teresa León was very important, and in the field of the arts, Manuel Ángeles Ortiz and Maruja Mallo.

The exhibition of Juan Manuel Bonet pays homage, with portraits of Picasso and Miguel Prieto and a sculpture signed by Pablo Serrano, to one of the most famous victims of the Retreat, the poet Antonio Machado, who died in Colliure, and whose tomb is today a place of pilgrimage and memory. As is the cemetery of Montauban, where Manuel Azaña is buried.

Another important chapter is that occupied by the Spanish artists of the post-war Paris, whose nucleus was made up of, among others, Manuel Ángeles Ortiz, Antoni Clayé or Xavier Badia Vilató, authors for whom Picasso was a fundamental reference.

The exhibition dedicates a space to the broadcasts of the BBC, Radio Paris and Radio España Independiente, the popular 'Pirenaica'.

The exhibition looks at the Transition to portray the spirit of what was involved in the reunion of Spain with exile, as symbolised, for example, by the photographic report by Jesús González on the arrival in Madrid of Picasso's 'Guernica'.

Philippe Gaussot’s photographic exhibition ‘Pathways of Exile’ proposes a collection of unpublished photographs of the photojournalist Philippe Gaussot (France, 1911) discovered by his son Jean-Philippe in a suitcase, after the death of his father. It is about a hundred images that portray with enormous hardness what The Withdrawal to France of thousands of exiles after the fall of Barcelona meant. The snapshots also document everyday scenes in children’s colonies sponsored by the National Catholic Committee of France that Gaussot helped raise. Commissioners Felip Solé and Grégory Tuban reconstruct in this exhibition, coordinated by Kiko Herrero, the legacy of this photographer, committed from a very young age to the humanitarian cause, who served as a journalist in Le Dauphiné Libéré.

Finally, 'Blood is not water', by Pierre Gonnord, presents the research work carried out by the artist Pierre Gonnord (France, 1963) based on the memories of survivors and descendants of the Spanish republican exile. It proposes an exhibition of portraits, testimonies and photographs of intimate objects. The exhibition, coordinated by Commissioner Carmen Fernández Ortiz, is a commission made ad hoc by the Interministerial Commission for the Commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Spanish republican exile and the Ministry of Justice. Word and image form in this exhibition an inseparable whole that invites the viewer to cross the borders of their own territory and recognize the existence of other realities, establishing an intimacy with the people portrayed who, at some point in their lives, needed to be heard, read and looked at, and that today is made possible thanks to art.

Until January 31, 2020 in La Arquería de Nuevos Ministerio, Paseo de la Castellana, 67.

From Tuesday to Saturday from 11.00 to 20.00h, Sundays and holidays from 11.00 to 14.00h. Monday closed.