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Download this audio partKurdistan Independence Party Secretary-General Ashtyako Poorkarim attended the opening at the invitation of the Delegation of the Government of Catalonia in France and held talks with Catalan officials on Kurdish-Catalan relations.
PARIS, 17 September 2026 — The Centre d’Études Catalanes at Sorbonne University hosted the opening of an exhibition in Paris devoted to Barcelona’s network of air-raid shelters during the Spanish Civil War, bringing together Catalan government representatives, academics, historians, cultural figures and invited guests.
The exhibition, The Civil War Shelters in Barcelona (Els refugis de la Guerra Civil a Barcelona), documents the underground shelters constructed to protect civilians during the aerial bombardment of Barcelona. The project is curated by historian Xavier Domènech and features photographs by journalist and photographer Ana Sánchez. According to the Institut Ramon Llull, the exhibition focuses on the memory of the 1,322 air-raid shelters built in Barcelona during the war and on their place in the city’s historical and democratic memory. (Institut Ramon Llull)
The Paris exhibition follows earlier presentations of the project in Barcelona in 2023 and London in 2025. It opened at the Centre d’Études Catalanes on 17 September and is scheduled to remain on display from 18 September to 23 October 2026. (Gencat)
The official opening brought together Sònia Hernández Almodóvar, Catalonia’s Minister of Culture; Michel Martínez Pérez, director of the Centre d’Études Catalanes; and Jaume Muñoz Jofre, coordinator of Democratic Memory programmes at Barcelona City Council. Anna Guitart Ferrer, director of the Institut Ramon Llull, and Eva Doya Le Besnerais, Delegate of the Government of Catalonia in France, were also among those present. (Institut Ramon Llull)
The exhibition was organised by Barcelona City Council, the Delegation of the Government of Catalonia in France and the Centre d’Études Catalanes of Sorbonne University, with support from the Institut Ramon Llull. (Institut Ramon Llull)
Earlier in the day, the Centre also hosted the study programme La mémoire des abris: Barcelone en temps de guerre — The Memory of the Shelters: Barcelona in Wartime. Xavier Domènech spoke on the unfinished memory of Barcelona’s shelters, while Ana Sánchez joined journalist and Spanish Civil War photojournalism specialist Michel Lefebvre for a discussion on images of the civilian rear during the conflict and the role of photography in constructing historical memory. (CRIMIC)
Hernández: the exhibition connects past and present
At the opening, Culture Minister Sònia Hernández placed the exhibition within the broader cultural relationship between Catalonia and France. She stressed the importance of continuing cultural exchanges and described relations between the two sides in terms of sustained and productive dialogue. (Europa Press)
Hernández also said the exhibition should not be understood solely as an account of the past. According to the Catalan government’s account of her remarks, the history of Barcelona’s shelters also raises questions about contemporary armed conflicts in Europe and its surrounding regions. She linked the exhibition both to democratic memory and to the preservation of an underground architectural heritage that remains part of Barcelona’s historical identity. (Europa Press)
The photographs by Ana Sánchez offer a contemporary visual record of spaces originally created in response to wartime bombardment. The historical research accompanying them places those sites within the wider experience of civilians during the Spanish Civil War and the later treatment of that memory during the Franco period. Institut Ramon Llull says the shelters’ history was largely silenced under Francoism before becoming the subject of renewed historical and cultural attention. (Institut Ramon Llull)
Ashtyako Poorkarim meets Catalan officials
Ashtyako Poorkarim, Secretary-General of the Kurdistan Independence Party, attended the opening at the invitation of the Delegation of the Government of Catalonia in France. During the reception, he met Sònia Hernández, Eva Doya Le Besnerais and other officials and participants.
In his conversation with Hernández, Poorkarim drew a comparison between the historical experiences of Kurds and Catalans, particularly their respective movements for self-determination. He referred to 2017, when an independence referendum was held in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq on 25 September and a Catalan independence referendum followed on 1 October. The Kurdish referendum returned 92.73% in favour of independence, while the Iraqi federal government rejected the vote; in Catalonia, the referendum had been suspended by Spain’s Constitutional Court and Spanish police intervened at a number of polling stations. (Arab News)
Poorkarim said that, in his view, the two cases also reflected major differences in political and security conditions: Catalonia pursues its national question within a European setting, while Kurdish politics has developed in a Middle Eastern environment marked by repeated wars, repression and regional conflict.
According to the Kurdistan Independence Party’s account of the discussions, the meetings also touched on strengthening political, cultural and institutional contacts between Kurdish and Catalan representatives and on the possibility of a future visit to Catalonia by a delegation from the party’s leadership. No formal programme or date for such a visit has yet been publicly announced by the Catalan authorities.
The conversations in Paris were presented by the Kurdish side as an initial opportunity to develop direct contacts and exchange experience on questions including culture, historical memory, political dialogue and self-determination.
The exhibition itself remains open at the Centre d’Études Catalanes, Sorbonne University, 9 rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie, Paris, until 23 October. The Centre, founded in 1977, operates as an academic, cultural and scientific institution within Sorbonne University. (lettres.sorbonne-universite.fr)
