Presentation of the publications Eugenio Granell: Correspondencia con sus camaradas del POUM and Artículos políticos de Eugenio Granell in Madrid’s Residencia de Estudiantes.
On September 30, at 7.30 pm, Madrids Residencia de Estudiantes will host the presentation of two new publications centred on Eugenio Granell, who had special links with the said institution. Both volumes are the result of research work carried out by the Granell Foundations Director, who mainly used the artists private archive, as well as public and private Republican archives in Catalonia.
The event will be presented by Natalia Fernández, Director of the Eugenio Granell Foundation and publisher of the volumes. It will also feature the presence of two board members of the Andreu Nin Foundation: José Manuel Vera, publisher of numerous books related to the POUM, and Pello Erdociain, who wrote a preface to the volume Artículos políticos de Eugenio Granell.
The Xunta de Galicias Culture Department will also be represented by the writer and Eugenio Granell biographer, Carlos Arias. On behalf of the Granell Foundation Board, we will be accompanied in this event by the co-president of the Foundation and Mayor of Santiago, Xosé Sánchez Bugallo, the history of art lecturer from the Complutense University, Lucía García de Carpi, a Eugenio Granell specialist, and the Santiago City Councillor Mercedes Rosón, who acts as patron to the Granell Foundation.
EUGENIO GRANELL: CORRESPONDENCIA CON SUS CAMARADAS DEL POUM This is a compendium of letters between Eugenio Granell and his POUM comrades from 1939, during his first exile in France, to the 1990s. The volume covers an extensive period in his life, when letters were an essential means of communication and cohesion for a group of persons, POUM militants, scattered by the diaspora. Apart from keeping the group together and the party active, letters helped to keep the intellectual debate alive. A constant theme during the long time covered in the book is the defence of POUM ideology, against the continuous attacks from dominant Stalinism. This selection of letters is also moving testimony of what it means to experience exile, giving us a revealing look at the human nature of Eugenio Granell and his party comrades.
ARTÍCULOS POLÍTICOS DE EUGENIO GRANELL This publication is made up of a selection of political articles written by Eugenio Granell. They cover an extensive period from 1932 (when Granell, at the early age of 20, surprises us by the maturity of his political discourse) to 1987, which shows the great importance of politics in the creators life. This selection of political articles is aimed at revealing the political thinking of Eugenio Granell, who is mainly known as a plastic and literary creator, and testifies to his incorruptible membership in the Trotsky and anti-Stalin left wing. The volume follows a chronological itinerary by way of Eugenio Granells political thinking as an organised militant: from his first articles in the Soviet in 1932 (Communist Youth Left) and those published in Comunismo as a member of the ICE (Spanish Communist Left) to periodic expressions of his political thinking in POUM publications (1935-1937) and other political publications of the Republic in exile, such as La Nación or España Libre. Also included are articles that Granell wrote in a variety of publications, always with the clear intention of continuing to defend his ideals, such as those published in the newspapers Diario 16 and El Mundo during the 1980s.
Information about the participants in the presentation of Eugenio Granell Fernández books.
PELLO ERDOZIAIN Born in Donostia in 1961. Industrial engineer. Lives and works in Barcelona. Board member of the Andreu Nin Foundation (Spain) and secretary of the Fundació Andreu Nin (Catalonia). He wrote the introduction to one of the Eugenio Granell books being presented: Artículos políticos. 1932-1990
JUAN MANUEL VERA Economist and essay writer. Board member of the Andreu Nin Foundation (Madrid). He has prepared the publication of numerous books related to the history of the POUM, including books by Julián Gorkin, Ignacio Iglesias, Wilebaldo Solano, Francesc de Cabo and Katia Landau. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the progressive journal Trasversales. Author of numerous philosophical and political essays. Specialist in the thinking of the philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis and author of the first book about him published in Spanish. Co-author of, among other books, La izquierda a la intemperie, Imaginación democrática y globalización, Entre dos siglos, Pásalo, multitud en rebelión, La derecha furiosa and La Iglesia furiosa.
LUCÍA GARCÍA DE CARPI Board member of the Eugenio Granell Foundation. PhD (History of Art) from Madrids Complutense University and lecturer in the Department of Art III (Contemporary) in the said university. A specialist in 20th-century art, she has particularly studied surrealism and its influence in the context of the Spanish avant-garde. Another of her fields of research is the contribution of Spanish artists to the renewal of stage arts, throughout the previous century. Dr. García de Carpi has written more than fifty publications, including articles, texts for catalogues, contributions to collective volumes and books, such as La imagen de la mujer en la obra de Eugenio Granell (Eugenio Granell Foundation, Santiago de Compostela, 2004). She has curated exhibitions such as: El surrealismo en España, produced by Madrids Rein Sofía National Museum and Art Centre in 1994, which travelled to the Kunsthalle in Dusseldorf, Kunsthalle in Vienna and Palazo Forti in Verona; Esteban Francés 1913-1976, Eugenio Granell Foundation, Santiago de Compostela, 1997, and El pintor Lamolla, Jaume Morera Museum, Lérida, 1998.
CARLOS ARIAS IGLESIAS In representation of the Director General for Cultural Creation and Diffusion of the Xunta de Galicias Culture and Tourism Department. Carlos Arias (Lugo, 1959) has been writing for more than thirty years. He has contributed to several publications, including a weekly column in El Correo Gallego for six years, and published a variety of texts: in 1989, along with Xosé Luis Veiga, he published Manual básico de xadrez, the first chess book in Galician; in 1995, Novo Século released O barco de seixo, which won the Camilo José Cela Narrative Prize in 1991. He thereafter published the novel Libro das capitulacións de Xulio Corveira Andrade (Toxosoutos, 2003) and Ríos que se abrazan (Toxosoutos, 2008). He also wrote a biography of the surrealist painter Eugenio Granell (Xunta de Galicia, 2005) and the poetry book Dor da claridade (Bubela, 2008). A Spanish Philology graduate of Santiago University, he worked as a writer/translator in the Countryside Department from 1992 to 1999, and as head of the Linguistic Advisory Section in the Directorate General for Linguistic Policy from 1999 to 204. He currently works in the Culture Departments Publications Section.
MERCEDES ROSÓN FERREIRO, Santiago City Councillor for Town Planning and Housing and for Education, will also attend the event.
For more information: Monse Cea prensagranell@yahoo.es / tel. 981 572124 www.fundacion-granell.org