Almost half century after Walter Benjamin death, the German government charges the prestigious artist Karavan a memorial monument dedicated to the philosopher, to be settled on the Costa Brava village where died: Portbou.
Walter Benjamin Memorial, in Portbou, Girona, Costa Brava
The monument is called ‘Passages’, referring to unfinished Benjamin’s last work: Passagen Werk, begun in 1927, a collection of citations and fragments that showed the different types of human transient to awake them from their own conscious absorption.
Portbou village remembers through this plaque the place where Walter Benjamin died, in the ancient Hostal Francia
The monument consists of a tunnel formed by steel plates with an oxidized red color, which adapts to the rocky environment that surrounds Portbou landscape, shaped by the north wind, the Tramuntana, which blows sometimes furiously.
Walter Benjamin Memorial is located next to Portbou cemetery
As long as the visitor goes down through the tunnel he feels the effect of the solitude of their steps until the moment when he arrives to the end light, striking a lookout towards the Bay of Portbou.
In the interior of the cemetery, a few meters away of the tunnel, it is possible to visit the ancient Walter Benjamin tomb, from the time he died until 1945, when the body was buried in a common grave.
Walter Benjamin in Portbou
