#thelisbonrouteproject

[lisbonrouteproject]

My trip allong the Lisbon Route from Marseille via Perpignan, Banyuls-sur-mer, Portbou (see detailed map of the so called "F-Route" named after Lisa and Hans Fittko who helped hundreds of refugees over the Pyrenees to Spain) Barcelona, Madrid, Badajoz and Lisbon.

[lisbonrouteproject]

Short audio excerpt from The Lisbon Route Project installation

[lisbonrouteproject]

Walter Benjamin Memorial

Yesterday I was visiting the Walter Benjamin Memorial by Dani Karavan in Portbou(Spain).

After an exhausting flight over the Pyrenees Walter Benjamin eventually arrived in Portbou. There he was told that he would be handed over to the French authorities the following day, which meant his subsequent surrender to the Nazi authorities. Under police surveillance, he stayed the night at Portbou where he took a strong dose of morphine. The next morning - 26 September 1940 - his dead body was found. He was 48 years old.

Dani Karavan's monument entitled Passages is a highly sonorous place amplifying the sounds of sea and the sounds of Portbou into an enormous drone.

Entrance to the Walter Benjamin Memorial

[lisbonrouteproject]

Passing through Spain as light passes through glass

It was clear the refugees were meant to keep moving through Spain; in the words of the foreign minister of the time they were passing through Spain as light passes through glass, leaving no trace.

This account refers also to my travel schedule, as I was passing Spain in just two days, staying now close to the Spanish border in Perpignan(France). 

This is what crossing a border sounds like nowadys

Tomorrow I will investigate the exhaustung Fittko-Trail over the Pyrenese.