Espe Pons - public talks

The Office of Student Unions and Activities, The Iberian Studies initiative in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, and the North American Catalan Society (NACS) invite you to a public series of talks on the work of Catalan photographer Espe Pons (Barcelona, 1973):

Ofelia Ferrán, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

“Mirant (a través de) una esquerda a la paret” / “Looking at (and through) a crack in the wall”

Lourdes Manyé, Furman University

“Absència i presència: la narrativa visual de la memòria als fotollibres d’Espe Pons”

Espe Pons, Photographer

“Del no-visible, d’allò callat” / “On What is Invisible, On What is Silent”

in Catalan, with English simultaneous translation

The Artist

Espe Pons is a freelance photographer. She specializes in reportage and artistic photography, with an emphasis on memory and landscape.  She has exhibited her work at numerous festivals and galleries around the world. In 2019 she was selected for an artist-in-residence program at Three Shadows Photography Art Center in Beijing, China. She has published three photobooks: Under the light of the sea (2021), Tierra (2023), and Flucht (2023).  Tierra was finalist for The Book Awards, in Les Prix du Livre, Arles, France (2023).

About the exhibition

“Mirrors of Oblivion” brings together two photographic essays by Catalan photographer Espe Pons: Sota la llum del mar (Under the Light of the Sea) (2019) and Tierra (Earth) (2023). Both are part of a long-term research/art project by the artist though which she explores a personal history of trauma and traces collective memory in Spain, all while working to dignify the victims of the mass violence imposed throughout the country by the fascist military regime of Francisco Franco (1939-1975) after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Her projects reflect on Spain’s unfinished business, as hundreds of unmarked, mass graves containing the bodies of thousands of people killed by Franco’s regime are still scattered throughout the country and true accountability for the crimes of the regime remains elusive.

The Colloquium

Founded in 1978, the North American Catalan Society (NACS) is a professional association of scholars, students, and people with a general interest in any aspect of Catalan culture (literature, linguistics, film, visual and performing arts, history, and philosophy, among other disciplines). The North American Catalan Society is committed to advancing the study of Catalan language and culture in the North American academy. It seeks to foster greater visibility for, and dissemination of, scholarship in the field of Catalan Studies. It serves as a central point of reference and a public voice for a network of scholars in this field. 

STATES OF HOSPITALITY 
19th International Colloquium of the North American Catalan Society 
April 18-20, 2024
Coffman Memorial Union

Co-sponsored by The Office of Student Unions and Activities (a unit of Student Affairs), The Iberian Studies Initiative in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, The Office of Global Programs and Strategy Alliance, German and European Studies, The Human Rights Program, NACS.