What has been the use of the insistent invocations of the duty of memory to prevent the repetition of historical atrocities? "never again", we said. What is happening today seems to call into question the effectiveness of this work of testimony and memory. Faced with the evidence of contemporary evils, what art can or should do? What literature can or should do, to photography or cinema? I borrow the title of a book by Andreas Huyssen that provides us with a framework to examine how certain cultural productions with political will fight an inexhaustible battle against the culture of war and violence.
Antonio Monegal is professor of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at Pompeu Fabra University. PhD from Harvard University, has taught at Cornell universities, Harvard, Princeton, Chicago i Stanford. Li will be awarded the National Essay Prize 2023 per Like the air we breathe: The meaning of culture (Cliff 2022), and then published El silencio de la guerra (Cliff 2024). He was one of the commissioners, together with Francesc Torres and José María Ridao, from the exhibition "En Guerra" (2004) and with Alyce Mahon curated “Sade: freedom or evil" (2023), both in the Center of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona. Of 2009 a 2013 he was vice-president of the Barcelona Culture Council and president of its Executive Committee. He was the commissioner of Spain's participation as a Guest of Honor in the Bogota International Book Fair 2025, with the slogan "A culture for peace".
