Guernica Remakings

Guernica Remakings online

This project contributes to an international community of knowledge through the research project website: Guernicaremakings.com The online presence of this project benefits and connects otherwise disparate forms of art activism that use Guernica to express specific local and global political issues as exemplified through the four case study remakings featured, magnifying the impact of these formerly isolated actions. At its core the audience for this video blog are the makers of the remakings featured, the audience for the blog develops exponentially as entries are added to the blog and interacted with. The blog includes a series of three documentary videos on each of the Guernicas featured and invites guest authors, including makers, to contribute to the discussion reflecting upon the translation of Guernica.

Guernica Remakings is recognised internationally. It features on the website Rethinking Guernica created by the Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia home to Picasso's Guernica and on Google Arts and Culture's Social Fabric story, Felting and Feeling to represent the Keiskamma Guernica (2010) in video. 

Nicola received £10,000 funding for this project through the University of Brighton’s Rising Stars Scheme 2015 – 2017. 

Protest against the bombing of Gaza: photograph by Cath Hann.

Guernica Remakings exhibition, July-August 2017

The 26th April 2017 marked the 80th year from the bombing of the town of Guernica that motivated Picasso to create his painting. In this important period of reflection this exhibition added to the legacy of Picasso’s Guernica highlighting its on-going value and the role remaking’s play in opening up dialogue on the process of translating Guernica. The Guernica Remakings exhibition in Brighton, UK (31 July - 23 Aug 2017) was also timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the exhibition of Picasso’s Guernica at the Exposition Internationale Paris, May – November 1937.

This exhibition demonstrates the transnational relevance of the messages held within the remakings of Guernica from the UK to South Africa, Syria to Canada and America to Iraq. This is particularly poignant in a period when the UK is withdrawing from Europe, in part, motivated it seems by fear around the freedom of movement of 'others'. Once again Guernica's humanitarian message becomes relevant calling for solidarity and compassion to transcend borders.

Funds have been gratefully received for this exhibition from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the University of Brighton.

'Alepponica' by Vasco Gargle: photograph by Joe Hague.

Guernica Remakings, South Africa - research into the practice of cross-cultural translation through making 2016 - 2018

The research carried out on the four collective remakings of Picasso’s Guernica led Dr Nicola Ashmore to South Africa in July 2015 to interview those involved in the making of the textile artwork Keiskamma Guernica (2010). The Keiskamma Guernica (2010) reflects the original size and scale of Picasso’s Guernica. The Keiskamma Art Project located in Hamburg and Bodiam in the Eastern Cape of South Africa have remade Guernica three more times on a much smaller scale (2011, 2012, 2015).

Their translation of Picasso's iconic anti-fascist artwork transforms its geography, time and narrative from: Spain to South Africa, from the early 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, from anti-fascism to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Guernica Remkaings, South Africa focuses on this process of cross-cultural translation through the commissioning of the creation of a fifth Keiskamma Guernica and asks why Guernica? Exploring what it is about this artwork that lends itself to being adapted. A series of twelve short documentary films will record the making of this artwork, these will be completed in 2018. Interviews with the makers record in their own voices their role in the making process and their insights regarding the visual translation of Guernica to comment on the HIV / AIDS crisis in South Africa. The makers will also be given the opportunity to express their ideas and needs for change, which will be included in the videos creating their vision of the future. The videos will be made available through the publication of the videos online through the research project website: Guernicaremakings.com, via a dedicated channel on Vimeo (Guernica Remakings), You Tube and the University of Brighton repository.

Dr Nicola Ashmore received funding for this project through the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Translating Cultures and Care for the Future International Development call funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund, 2016 - 2018.

Zoleka, Veronica and Nombulelo with Keishkamma Guernica 2017: photograph by Joe Hague.

The Keiskamma Guernicas

Diverse intangible and physical cultural heritages are cross-culturally communicated through the textiles pieces manifest in the materials and symbols used in the Keiskamma Guernica’s. These are distinct to the makers and the region influenced by the dominant Xhosa culture and the lived experiences of HIV/AIDS. Picasso’s shapes and symbols have been adapted and altered by the Keiskamma Art Project using iconography unique to the local area. The narrative departs from Picasso’s Guernica and focuses on the impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis to enable it to be better understood by those who view the Keiskamma Guernica. For example the mother holding her dying baby in Picasso’s Guernica is notably changed in the Keiskamma Guernica to show a mother holding her adult child. This indicates that in the height of the crisis, HIV/AIDS related illnesses directly effected adults in larger numbers than infants. Within this research project the creation of a fifth Keiskamma Guernica will be documented.

Keishkamma Guernica 2010: photograph by Robert Hofmey.

List of associated publications and conference contributions