| The Phantom of Guernica |
Monday 26 April 1937 was market day in the little Basque provincial town of Guernica. Farmers, donkeys and oxen made their way slowly to the town centre as the first rays of sunlight swept away the lingering shadows of the night still hiding in the narrow alleys between the white houses. They were little aware of the events which were to unfold this fatal day. Events which would change their lives as well as history forever. One finds Guernica situated in a gentle valley surrounded by mountains in the land of Euskadi or Pais Vasco about 20 km northeast of the provincial capital Bilbao. Here lived in April 1937 about 7000 inhabitants, self sufficing from farming and supporting workshops. The Basque people had lived in this valley since prehistoric times, attending to their daily life with the support of a unique culture, symbolised by an ancient oak tree “El Arbol de Guernica”. At this moment during the Spanish Civil War, Guernica was only about 15 km from the front of the advancing nationalist troops under the leadership of General Mola. Retreating republican soldiers were seeking refuge in the town, which was completely vulnerable without any anti-aircraft cover for protection. This was the setting chosen by the German commanders to make extrinsic their horrific crime against humanity. At half past four in the afternoon the alarming toll of church bells could be heard in the valley, soon to be replaced by the foreboding droning noise from a single aircraft. It circled the town, like a buzzard sweeping along the hedgerows in pursuit of its prey, before dropping its cargo of destruction and disappearing into oblivion. Panic ensued. Men, women, and children frantically sought refuge wherever it could be found but this was only the beginning! Soon the German Condor Region descended on Guernica with its “fire of evil” incarnated in the form of incendiary bombs falling indiscriminately over the town. As the flames, helped by gusts of wind, engulfed the narrow alleys, defenceless civilians were mercilessly machine-gunned from the air as they tried to escape the burning infernos of their shelters. By morning the next day, Guernica had become a monument of meaningless devastation with over 2000 dead or wounded. Dwellings scorched to smouldering ashes were all that remained of a peaceful town. The Condor team returned in a jubilant mood to its base. “A successful raid without any casualties!” But was it a successful raid? The world was shocked and outraged over the horrors of Guernica. No-one more so than the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, who linked the tragedy of Guernica to what might transpire to the towns of Britain in the event of a war with Germany. An omen for the future? His immediate response was a complete overhaul of the Royal Airforce. Did the “Luftwaffe” lose the Battle of Britain over the gently valley of Guernica?? The Guernica tragedy might not have preserved its monumental prestige in history if it had not encountered the orbit of another significant event. The Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, already in 1937 an international superstar, had been commissioned by the legitimate Spanish government to produce a mural sized painting to fill a space of 11 x 4 meters for the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris. It was a gigantic as well as daunting task not only in its size but also considering its significance. The Republican government wanted to demonstrate, to a resigned world, its desperate plea for help by embedding it in an epic piece of art. Picasso lacked inspiration. By the end of April nothing had emerged to satisfy his pursuit for perfection. As the media broke the Guernica story on 27 April, Picasso, who was informed of the event in a Parisian café, finally acquired the inspiration to fulfil his mission. With his first sketches, a multitude of scenarios and impressions evolve into an eternal monument of terror. Using black and white as the media of expression, details are carefully located on the canvas to achieve a logic structure of composition. Picasso’s mistress at the time Dora Maar, an accomplished photographer, documented the progress of the creation over two months from the initial strokes of the pencil to the final hand over. Presenting the painting to his friend Josep Lluis Sert, Picasso said: “If peace wins in the world, the war I have painted will be a thing of the past.” In front of me is a reproduction of Guernica. I am dazzled. The complexity of the total layout is at first impossible to comprehend. Where is Guernica? Where is the connection to that fateful day in April 1937? I cannot envisage it. Then I focus my mind on the details. Slowly like viewing the world through a camera lens the contours are joining together to transform themselves into a scene of mental exhaustion. The backdrop is black with the stage lit by a lamp in flames. The reticent scream of excruciating pain from a horse in the centre on the scene. The vengeance stare of a bull. A solemn flower attached to a broken sword. Faces crystallised into splinters of panic, confusion, despair…… Where is the solution to this artistic equation? There are as many answers as there are viewers. This is the power behind Guernica, making the painting into an immortal work of art. In the aftermath of the Guernica bombing the nationalist troops under General Mola advanced rapidly to finally capture Bilbao on 17 June 1937. The dreams of the Basque people, with its symbolic heart in Guernica, were shattered. In retrospect they had been fighting not so much for the Spanish democracy but for their own independent state. An aim still pertained to this current day. During the Basque campaign between March and June 1937 the human hardship, not only in Guernica, but in the region as a whole was staggering. Children were torn from their parents to be evacuated to safety in exile outside the boundaries of a war torn Spain. Their plight has been immortalised by the Spanish author Luis de Castresana in his autobiography “El otro arbol de Guernica” (Guernica’s other tree). Here he tenderly describes how he, “Santi”, creates a new Euskadi under an oak tree in Brussels. At first only Basque children are eligible but gradually children from other parts of Spain join in moments of reconciliation. Finally a Belgian boy “Andre” is bestowed the honour to become part of the fold. A futuristic move! The Spanish Pavilion at the World’s Fair in Paris opened on 12 July 1937 under the heavy clouds of a politically explosive Europe. Picasso’s mural had centre stage in an architectural environment of openness, which was in stark contrast to the restraint atmosphere of the painting itself. The painting met with both acclaim and severe criticism from all sides of the political spectrum. The totalitarian states of Germany and Italy were predictably negative in their response. Its non classical structure as well as the overall message. After the World’s Fair, Guernica made an extensive tour to various art galleries and museums in Europe before finding a temporary home at New York’s Museum for Modern Art in 1939, where it would remain for more than 40 years. Standing in front of the painting on its return to Spain in October 1981 Dolores Ibarruri “La Pasionaria”, the great republican orator, whispered: “The Civil War has ended”. Over the years the word Guernica has acquired a new significance by the merger of the town Guernica, the event Guernica and the painting Guernica into a universal symbol of civilian sufferings in the hands of terrorism. As I look at my reproduction of Guernica the template of a jigsaw is emerging. I pick up the pieces: London during the blitz of W.W.II; a gigantic mushroom cloud over Hiroshima in 1945; a naked child running away from a napalm bomb during the Vietnam war, the black smoke from a plane as it hits the World Trade Centre in New York in September in 2001; the grief of a mother burying her son in Baghdad yesterday…… the list is endless but the pieces all fit together on the jigsaw of terror. For the contemporary world the “Phantom of Guernica” has become an integrated part of our daily lives. In the beginning of February 2005 the newly appointed US Secretary of State, Ms Dondoleezza Rice made an introductory tour to Europe to present herself in her new role. Asked directly by the press whether the US planned an attack on Iran, Ms Rice responded: “The question is simply not on the agenda at this point in time. We have diplomatic missions to do this.” This statement was analysed at great length by the media next day. Perusing these prognostics I could as in a dream, visualise “The Phantom of Guernica” appear between the lines. I closed my eyes and remembered a popular song from the 1960’s: “The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.”
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