On the occasion of the opening of the Forum Spain, UNHCR delves into the parallelism between what represents one of the main works of Pablo Picasso, the Guernica, and the current situation that more than 110 million refugees and displaced people live in due to war, persecution and human rights violations.
This June 20, on the occasion of World Refugee Day and the 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso, UNHCR has decided to pay tribute to the more than 110 million refugees and displaced people in the world. Guernica was one of Picasso's masterpieces. Not only for its quality, but also for its symbolism, it transmits through his art, the pain and violence caused by war. Its message is still valid today, because it happened not so far away and not so long ago.
Through #GuernicaRefugiado, UNHCR wanted to symbolically change the fate of the characters in the work, who have found refuge and protection in museums and art galleries in different Spanish cities (Bilbao, Pamplona, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville), reinterpreted by renowned Spanish artists of the stature of Jacinto de Manuel, Borja Évora, María Bisbal Pardo, FOD and Sonia Navarro. These professionals have elaborated their own elements of Guernica from different disciplines such as painting, sculpture, music, poetry and the performing arts.