Zaragoza (EFE).- The Aragonese photojournalists Judith Prat and Diego Ibarra talk in an exhibition with Francisco de Goya about the barbarism, the escabechinas and “The Disasters of Wars” that, two hundred years later, continue to cause human beings in these conflicts armed.
To his facet as a painter and engraver, Goya added that of being an exceptional chronicler of history and his series of engravings reflected this, above all the 82 he made under the title “Los Desastres de la Guerra”.
Currently, changing the burin, the brush or the pencil for a photographic machine, Judith Prat and Diego Ibarra accumulate several decades capturing the different wars and conflicts that devastate the world, despite the fact that some have all eyes on them and others, despite their existence, go unnoticed by citizens.
More sophisticated wars, same suffering
“Wars have become more sophisticated, but the suffering remains the same,” explained Judith Prat at the presentation of this exhibition that can be seen in the Patio de la Infanta de Ibercaja in Zaragoza until September 24.
Along with Judit Prat and Diego Ibarra, José Luis Rodrigo, general director of Fundación Ibercaja; Mayte Ciriza, head of the Culture Department; and Pilar Irala, curator and researcher at San Jorge University.
In the exhibition space, where the entire series of 82 engravings is present, a total of 26 of the works by the genius from Fuendetodos dialogue with as many impressive photographs taken by photojournalists in different armed conflicts that they have covered in different parts of the world.
Barbarism, violence and the unjust consequences derived from armed conflicts are the focus of this exhibition that invites us to reflect on the disaster that wars generate and have generated throughout history, even though there has been no graphic record.
“Strikingly Similar” Images
“They are the same horrors that Goya immortalized two centuries ago and that are being repeated now. It is an exhibition that entails pain in which the protagonists are those who suffer through courageous and rigorous work that the authors have witnessed”, stated José Luis Rodrigo.
The exhibition highlights how in several cases the images that Goya captured are “surprisingly” similar in an exhibition in which two levels are shown in the dialogue of the images, one more symbolic and another in which the iconography has a direct relationship between the engraving and photography that “came out alone”.
Pilar Irala explained that the first job she did in preparing the show was “to spend hours looking at Los Desastres and Goya’s images, which are horrifying and disturbing and even harsher than some photographs.”
The drawings that Goya made can be considered press illustrations, and that in some way he invented graphic reporting and participated in the birth of visual journalism.
Irala has insisted that an attempt has been made to mount an educational exhibition, in which, given the enormous amount of material that Prat and Ibarra have, 82 diptychs could have been obtained “but they did not fit in the room”.
call to reflection
This exhibition pursues a double objective, to motivate reflection on human barbarity and to value photojournalists, who rigorously and courageously carry out a very difficult profession on a professional and personal level.
“The disasters of wars” brings into dialogue distant moments in time and space, but with a clear point in common: they all portray the atrocities of war and the horrible consequences that always fall on the population.
On the one hand, Francisco de Goya, who immortalized through his series of engravings Disasters of War, the hunger, misery and cruelty of the War of Independence in Zaragoza (1808-1814).
On the other hand, both photojournalists through their lenses capture the pain, anguish and impotence of people who have lost everything in countries like Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, the Congo, Colombia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria or more. recently Ukraine.
Through 19th century engravings or thanks to photographs taken in different armed conflicts between 2011 and 2022, both Goya and Ibarra and Prat become the true witnesses of wars, especially their consequences.
“It is necessary to be explicit”
Diego Ibarra has recognized that it is “the first time that I undress to be so explicit and I do it in homage to Goya” but he has also defended the need to “sometimes be explicit because it is necessary to show the horror. We have to tell what they don’t want to be told and be uncomfortable witnesses. Our job is to show and make visible”.
He has also stressed that being “uncomfortable witnesses is uncomfortable” and has defended the need for a fair trial for the Spanish journalist Pablo González, imprisoned for a year and a half in Poland when he was covering the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
The sample is raised by means of diptychs, where the set of engravings and photographs present practically identical scenes, in which the same gestures and situations are repeated.
Along with the violence and pain that are the protagonists of the exhibited pieces – all of them without glass, which allows us to get even closer to their reality – various topics are described, such as mental health and the situation of the sick in these countries or the role of women , who are not only victims, but also an example of strength and courage to face wars and raise their families.