Nationalist forces advance into the town of Flix, recreating a scene from the Battle of the Ebro during Spain's Civil War. Smoke engulfs the streets as re-enactors portray the urban combat that defines this pivotal conflict chapter.
Flix, 2024.
Public Project
Reimagining: The Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) split Spain in two and left scars in many homes. It was a conflict of families forced to fight, fields turned into trenches, and stories buried beneath decades of silence.
Today, the scenes that the re-enactors recreate often carry a touch of irony: individuals who personally identify with ideologies like Carlism—an ultra-conservative Spanish movement—taking on the roles of Republicans, while others who support far-left ideals portray Nationalists, the faction led by fascist Franco, all firing at each other with the theater of war in full swing—smoke bombs, antique rifle blanks, the staccato of false machine gun fire, and the reverberation of sometimes imagined grenades. The surrealism is not lost on them; this blend of seriousness and humor makes these re-enactments very human. They are, after all, not just performing history but confronting it, shouting at the grey areas of living memory.
This idea incorporates previously unseen archives from the Spanish Civil War held by some of the re-enactors, set against one of the most iconic scenarios of documentary photography—the horizon of wartime Spain. These archives were uncovered through different means: inherited from family, gifted by friends, or purchased from antique shops in pueblos. During their re-enactments, the performers retrace the routes of soldiers and explore old trenches, where they often discover remnants of the war—shell casings, bullets, glass, grenade rings… The lines between past and present blur as the modern act of re-enactment is juxtaposed with the in situ stories from the former battlefield.
At times, when fate converges with an archive damaged by chemistry and time, re-enactors seem to slip into that altered world, as if the photograph becomes our memory and reality, the past itself, bruised and fragmented, reaches out to draw them into a fading memory. Re-enactors become part of the archive, reviving and expanding the history, allowing us to question what past survives and why.
The project also gains complexity through the involvement of a present re-enactor who portrays a war photographer from the era. Sean Edwards is an American citizen living in Spain who takes on the role of a correspondent photographer for the International Brigade. Using a Wirgin from 1937, he captures the re-enactments using the same techniques that would have been used during the Spanish Civil War.
In Spain, war reenactments seem to have transcended blank firing and playing dead. These reenactments become conversations, objects, and intellectualized representations of our darker episodes. They invite us to question how we understand their legacy. Pablo Gracia, a dedicated reenactor and historian, emphasizes that recreating the Spanish Civil War can dismantle romanticized notions and foster a critical awareness of violence and its consequences. According to Gracia, in a world still shaped by war, reenactments can help instill a critical and anti-war mindset.
Immersing oneself in a reenactment goes beyond attending a theatrical performance. It is about being at the site of events, hearing stories silenced by time, and seeing how the past confronts us. Attending a reenactment of the Spanish Civil War is an invitation to rediscover history and a direct path to the heart of memory.
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