102 ex-libris : homage exposition to Walter Benjamin

The life of the Berlin born philosopher, Walter Benjamin, and his untimely death in 1940 at Port Bou, Catalonia (Spain) while trying to escape the Gestapo, have become emblematic symbols of exile, self-imposed or otherwise. Such exiles may include; those of persons fleeing repression in Franco's Spain or doing likewise from occupied France, or indeed, from any other place throughout the planet at any time in history.

Walter Benjamin in his heterodoxy, eclecticism and polyvalence; his simultaneous identities as both a Jew and a Marxist, evokes the drama of all wandering exiles.

In introducing the notion of an imaginary ex-libris, this exhibition hopes, on the one hand to link Walter Benjamin with his own literary identity as well as, to allow the selected artists to show through both literal and iconographic interpretations, that which as creative individuals, they find most outstanding in the figure homaged.

This visually cohesive exhibition gathers 102 artists from different disciplines; engraving, painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and graphic design, etc.

The words "Ex-Libris" and "Walter Benjamin" combined with images; figurative, realistic and abstract, manage in one way or another to evoke punctual ideas and sensations concerning Benjamin, to the viewer. A more complete portrait is the result of the exhibition as a whole. It is evident that within the context of this exhibition we cannot consider the ex libris as an object denoting the ownership of a book, nor, as an item intended for exchange by ex-libris-collectors. This is however, a collection of works of art wherin can be found an accumulation of inspirations relative to the homaged figure.

Alain Moreau
Joan-Lluís de Yebra