“The Welcome Evil” confronts us with the ambiguities of war and invites us to reflect on the meaning of war conflicts. Francesc Torres’ installation in the foyer of El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria, which can be seen until 1 September 2024, reflects on the complex question Why War? which serves as an introduction and is part of the Born’s exhibition project for 2024.

It makes an impact before entering, already from the Passatge del Born and as you go further in you can make out a military ambulance, finding yourself in the vestibule with an installation charged with double readings.

The central element is an ambulance, surrounded by three key points that compositionally form a triangle. An image on the floor that seems to be placed inside the ambulance is an anamorphic replica of a photograph taken in Bucha (Ukraine) in 2022 of a civilian killed by Russian soldiers while riding a bicycle, above it are real elements such as broken and crushed bicycles. Looking up from the ground, this image leads us to the second point: the back of the ambulance, which, because it does not contain what is expected of such life-saving vehicles, acquires a double meaning in terms of its function in the context of the war. Inside, a video of a mother breastfeeding her child is shown interspersed with images of warfare.

The last point is situated at the front of the car facing a wall, on one side there is an egg that is held up only by the pressure between the vehicle and the concrete wall, in the words of the artist it represents human fragility “If you squeeze it too much it crushes, but if you let it fall, the result is no better”, on the opposite side a photograph from the Second World War taken in Saipan in 1944 of a soldier holding in his hands (the same hands that moments before were holding a rifle) a baby that he has found in the rubble. This work is completed by the sound that, despite the ambient noise, tries to dialogue with the ruins in which El Born CCM is located, where its permanent exhibition shows a selection of bombs that were found during the excavation, making visible the horror that the inhabitants of the city had to suffer during the siege of 1714.

As the author argues, this work does not provide answers to the question “why war? but shows through the language of art its historical prevalence. War happens because it is possible, and within the possible anything can happen. Perhaps it will be necessary to unravel the didactics of war, transmitted through historical ephemeris and what it represents in culture in order to ask new questions.

Installation view “The Welcome Evil” by Francesc Torres. Barcelona, 2024. El Born CCM © Photo: Xavi Torrent

“The Welcome Evil” by Francesc Torres
El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria Foyer until September, 1st
For more information visit the website of El Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria.

(Front image: Installation view “The Welcome Evil” by Francesc Francesc Torres. Barcelona, 2024. El Born CCM © Photo: Xavi Torrent)