Retaule Homenatge a Sarajevo

Homage to Sarajevo

Homage to Sarajevo is a visual narration in which Jaume Solé (Valls, 1943 - 2011) represents in a critical manner the horrors of an historical event, the war in the Balkans, and specifically, the location of Sarajevo (1992-1995).

We are faced with a battlefield where the blood and sweat of the participants, either soldiers or innocent parties who were involved in it against their will, are still present.

In this work, made up of 21 reticules, various concepts are represented, including rape, suffering, abuse of power, siege, homophobia, oppression, the shortage of food and water, wasteland, mutilations, arms and gunfire, common graves and death.

To represent these themes, Jaume Solé employes the technique of assembly in order to add to the work various objects, such as clothing, dry bread, wires or water containers. The inclusion of these objects, the use he makes of the pictoric medium by giving it plenty of texture and the chromatism based on earth and dark colours, increase the dramatic quality of the work.

Jaume Solé is very graphic in what he wants to transmit; this work distances itself from the abstraction that would subsequently characterise his output, and submerges itself in a conceptual work that highlights the significance of the object rather than its formal value.

Jaume Solé was an artist committed to his time and was unable to turn his back on the drama being experienced by the inhabitants of Bosnia. This theme was central to his series Estampas de los 90 (Stamps of the 90s), in which he considered the effects of war and the blatant abuse of power the dominant majorities over minorities.

The drama experienced by the inhabitants of Bosnia was central to this work. It does not depict destruction and death, but martyrdom and a contempt for human life. It deals with direct and conscious violence committed by men on their peers, violence between brothers.

Jaume Solé wishes to record the consequences, atrocities and negative effects of the war, which is why he has created this large mural, with which he does not want us to be passive before the word “war"; he wants us to consider its horrors and to be active in rejecting such conflicts and the minds that generate them.

Next to the work, you will find a touch screen with information to discover the work in more detail.