Seminar “Behind Walter Benjamin’s Steps”

• Day: September 26
• Time: 6:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
• Space: Espai Educatiu Guillem Cifre de Colonya
• Free activity with prior registration 

The stays of the German philosopher Walter Benjamin in Ibiza are included in the exhibition “The Ibizan Series” by Gonzalo Elvira, which can be seen until September 29 at Es Baluard Museu.

As a final day, we propose a seminar made up of two presentations that will address both Benjamin’s time on the island and the reflections that underlie the works that make up the Elvira exhibition, curated by Juan de Nieves. The proposed date coincides with two biographical anniversaries: the philosopher left Ibiza on September 26, 1933 and years later, he committed suicide in Portbou, same date in 1940.

PROGRAM

• 6 pm Walter Benjamin en Ibiza, by Vicente Valero.

Between 1932 and 1933, Walter Benjamin (Berlin, 1892) traveled to the island of Ibiza twice, the first time as a tourist, the second as an exile. His two stays, of three and six months respectively, turned out to be very productive, from a literary point of view mainly, as a narrator, and his relationship with the island – very intense, sometimes conflictive – also turned out to be an important source of experiences. , diverse thoughts, knowledge and anecdotes, reflected in a large number of important texts and letters, testimonies and photographs.

• 7.30 pm La historia se deshace en imágenes: las imágenes-pensamiento en Walter Benjamin y Gonzalo Elvira, by Alejandra Uslenghi.

This presentation reflects on Gonzalo Elvira’s exhibition in light of the reflections on Walter Benjamin’s philosophy of the image. How can images of the past redeem our catastrophic present and help us glimpse a possible future? If during his stay in Ibiza, Benjamin came to the meeting with the history of a Europe on the verge of tragically breaking up, Elvira brings together in her drawings the fragments of that experience as exciting as it is desolate in a new constellation that updates its meaning for us today. We will tour the “Ibizan Series” exhibition, intertwining Benjamin’s texts on memory and modern image with the thought-images that Elvira has created.

BIOGRAPHIES

Alejandra Uslenghi is a professor of Spanish and comparative literature studies at Northwestern University, United States (Phd, New York University). She is the author of Latin America at fin-de-sècle Universal Exhibitions (Palgrave, 2016) and compiler of Walter Benjamin. Culturas de la imagen (Eterna Cadencia, 2011). She specializes in critical theory and the relationship between literature and modern visual culture. Alejandra has published in academic journals, artist catalogues, and specialized publications on the history of photography and modern photography in Latin America.

Vicente Valero is a poet, essayist and narrator. He is the author of six books of poems: Jardín de la noche (El Serbal, 1986), Herencia y fábula (Rialp, 1989), Teoría solar (Visor, 1992), Vigilia en Cabo Sur (Tusquets, 1999), Libro de los trazados (Tusquets, 2005) and Días del bosque (Visor, 2008). The latter received the 2007 Loewe Foundation International Prize. His poetry appears in different anthologies of current Spanish poetry and has been translated into various languages. In 2015 he also published Canción del distraído (Vaso roto, 2015), a rereading and self-selection of all of his poetry.
In addition to poetry, he has published some essays such as La poesía de Juan Ramón Jiménez (Andros, 1988), Viajeros contemporáneos. Ibiza, siglo XX (Pre-textos, 2004), Diario de un acercamiento (Pre-textos, 2008), Experiencia y pobreza. Walter Benjamin en Ibiza (Península, 2001 and Periférica, 2017), which has been translated into French, German and Portuguese, and Breviario provenzal (2022).
As a researcher of this specific period in the life of the Berlin thinker, he has also published the book Walter Benjamin. Letters from the time of Ibiza (Pre-textos, 2008) and has curated the exhibition “Walter Benjamin a Eivissa”, which could be seen in Ibiza, Palma and Frankfurt in 2007. He has published numerous articles and reports on this same topic, as well as the script for the TVE documentary Walter Benjamin en Ibiza (2005).
As a narrator he made his debut in 2014 with Los extraños, which was followed by El arte de la fuga (2015), Las transiciones (2016), Duelo de Alfiles (2018) and Enfermos Antiguos (2020), all published by editorial Periférica and translated into German at the Berenberg publishing house in Berlin.