Distinction to CRAI UB for its support to #SalvaPeironcely10 project on cultural heritage of Civil War
In 1936, the photographer Robert Capa published one of his most known photographs, in which we saw some kids playing around the remains after the German and Italian bombings in the neighbourhood of Vallecas. In particular, they were in front of the building number 10 in Perioncely Street, which was immortalized with that picture. More than eighty years later, the Anatasio de Gracia - FITEL (AGFITEL) Foundation launched a campaign, to which the CRAI UB has joined, so that the building gets declared building of cultural interest while the families living there get a dignified home, since they are living under precarious economic conditions. This is the initiative #SalvaPeironcely10, which brought already some results: the building in Vallecas is in its final phase so that Madrid City Council includes it in the Catalogue of Protected Goods and Spaces. After this, AGFITEL decided to award a public distinction to CRAI UB for its support, through a ceremony which took place today, February 19, in the Pavilion of the Spanish Republic of the University of Barcelona.
In 1936, the photographer Robert Capa published one of his most known photographs, in which we saw some kids playing around the remains after the German and Italian bombings in the neighbourhood of Vallecas. In particular, they were in front of the building number 10 in Perioncely Street, which was immortalized with that picture. More than eighty years later, the Anatasio de Gracia - FITEL (AGFITEL) Foundation launched a campaign, to which the CRAI UB has joined, so that the building gets declared building of cultural interest while the families living there get a dignified home, since they are living under precarious economic conditions. This is the initiative #SalvaPeironcely10, which brought already some results: the building in Vallecas is in its final phase so that Madrid City Council includes it in the Catalogue of Protected Goods and Spaces. After this, AGFITEL decided to award a public distinction to CRAI UB for its support, through a ceremony which took place today, February 19, in the Pavilion of the Spanish Republic of the University of Barcelona.
The initiative #SalvaPeironcely10 gathered several cultural and academic entities from different countries, among which are the Pavelló de la República CRAI Library, one of the most important archive-library on the Second Republic, the Civil War, exile, Franco regime and the Spanish Transition. “We take part in the campaign because this area of Madrid was an emblematic and significant place to Robert Capa, and it has a close bond regarding the kind of materials we have in the Pavilion library”, says the head of the library of the UB, Lourdes Prades. AGFITEL gave CRAI UB a commemorative plaque during the event, which counted on the attendance of the vice-rector for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Salvador García. Actually, this vice-rectorʼs office is leading an “open and participative project which intends to define the best possible tool to preserve, value and enrich our cultural heritage”, noted Salvador García. The vice-rector noted that “the CRAI has been essential in the idea of this new architecture we start drawing, based on two essential concepts: memory and knowledge, which give their best results when shared with society”.
AGFITEL members say that, apart from making progress on the building of Peironcely Street being put in the Catalogue of Protected Goods and Spaces, Madrid City Council started the procedure to expropriate the building and turn it into cultural granting. In fact, the platform #SalvaPeironcely10 has presented the project of the creation of Centro Robert Capa in this place for the interpretation of the aerial bombings in Madrid. Regarding the neighbours, they will be given access to rent accommodation by Empresa Municipal de la Vivienda y Suelo. At the moment, evictions have been prevented and negotiations on them living in Peironcely are being made -until the building is expropriated and they can move to another house. AGFITEL values positively “the network of personalities and institutions that supported the project, a cross-sectional and transnational network that understood these two aims: conservation of a common heritage, symbol of horror and war and childhood vulnerability, and claim for a dignified living”.