Barcelona commemorates the 80 years of the bombing of the city with a mapping installation, light and sound

Organized by the CSCI and created by the artist Xavi Bové, The mapping L’arbre de la Mòria will be projected on the façade of Barcelona City Hall. 16 al 18 March, inaugurating the programming that will take place throughout the year.

He Barcelona City Council, via the Commissioner of Memory Programs (Commissioner of Memory Programs), has developed a program to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the aerial bombings that the city suffered in 1938 by the Italian aviation.

Among the initiatives that will be carried out to commemorate the 80 years of this bombing of Barcelona, of the 16 al 18 March, dates on which the Italian aviation carried out more intense bombing, the artistic mapping installation is going to be carried out, light and sound, The Tree of Memory (The tree of Memory).

This work, created with citizens in mind, will inaugurate the programming, made up of informative actions, educational and cultural, which will take place throughout the year under the name 'Barcelona bombed' 1936-1939. We want peace but not oblivion. In addition, It is also part of the project 'Images for Memory. Fascist iconography and the Spanish Civil War (2016-2019)’, organized by the Center for Studies on Italian Cinema (CSCI).

Curated by Daniela Aronica, director of the CSCI, and under the direction of Xavi Bové, creator of the work, The tree of Memory is, as explained by those responsible, the image of life and our humanity. Its author wanted to escape from the images of bombs and horror and capture what happened in a more dreamlike way, thinking about a future of peace.. The tree figure is axial, connect the earth with the sky, but also burning and growing on the horizon, through branches and fruits.

The 3D projection that will be seen in Plaça Sant Jaume will show a gigantic tree made from small short paths, interrupted, referring to the discontinuous bombing that Mussolini ordered and that spread terror in the population. Each stroke is related to the same perceptual act, with a thread of voice, subtle, individual, but when added together they end up creating a global heart, a cry for peace and freedom.

In the mapping, which will last about ten minutes and will have a voice-over to contextualize the projection, the tree is growing with branches, twigs, leaves and fruits full of symbology. Each fruit projects a light that points towards the sky and invites the public to look upward without fear., without complexes, and so, by extension, It becomes a ray of light that can be seen from all parts of the city.