The exhibition: SPAIN IN THE WORLD OF IVO ANDRIĆ, will be opened on Friday, June 19, at 8:30 p.m., in the garden of the House of Nobel laureate Ivo Andrić.

What did Spain mean in the world of Ivo Andrić as a top literary creator? The exhibition offers an answer to this question.

Its starting point is the stay of the young diplomat Andrić in Madrid in 1928-1929, in order to follow first his first steps in the reality of this country, and what is even more important in its culture, which he will single out from the European cultural circle because in it “everything that exists strives to overcome itself, and everything exceeded its vulgar purpose, by a finger, by a forearm, or by an elbow…” Andrić’s notes by the side of the road he was walking, travelogues, memories, translations, essays – these stories are the beginning.

However, its very beginning was Andrić’s contact with Spanish Jews (Sephardim) in Bosnia, where for 400 years they preserved the memory of Spain in their language and cultural tradition. When he went to Spain, Andrić found there only the memory of the Sephardim who were expelled from that country at the end of the 15th century. Sephardic characters scattered throughout Andrić’s literary works tell us not only about those people, about Jews, about Spain and about Bosnia, but about the fate of nations and individuals in the whirlwinds of history.

The third and last segment of the exhibition refers to the Spanish painter Goja (1746-1828), whose works Andrić had the opportunity to see at the exceptional exhibition in the Prado Museum organized on the occasion of the centenary of Gojna’s death. “Goya takes you away, astounds, frightens and delights you. You too leave, pass through the world and museums, but you will never be able to forget Goya”, wrote Andrić. What happened in Andrić’s spiritual meeting with Goya? What traces did he leave in Andrić’s work?

“In a thousand different languages, in the most diverse conditions of life, from century to century… the story of man’s destiny is told in front of him”, said Andrić when he received the Nobel Prize for Literature. This exhibition is Andrić’s story about Spain.

Author: Krinka Vidaković Petrov