Cerca de aquí / Hemendik hurbil is an extensive book, a possible story of the unspeakable, a mirror for those who experienced the Basque conflict at close quarters and a window for those from outside who were looking for more pieces of a puzzle that they intuited to be complex though they were unaware that it was being sold incomplete.

To speak knowledgeably of something, one must have experienced it at close quarters. This experience allows one to speak of it authoritatively, because the events that have taken place over the years have broadened one’s personal experience and turned it into a common expression of an era. The desire to speak about it is accompanied by the need to do so and the courage to face confront it.

Cerca de aquí / Hemendik hurbil, by Clemente Bernad, involves a person and a photographer and, in this context, the two are worth much more than the sum of their parts.

Clement Bernard (Pamplona/Iruñea, 1963). Bernad has a degree in Fine Arts and a master of advanced studies in Sociology. He has been a photographer and documentary filmmaker since 1986, with a strong interest in social and political issues within his closest cultural environment. His works include Morir de sueños (To Die of Dreams), on the recovery of historical memory in Spain, and Cerca de aquí / Hemendik hurbil (Near Here).

Carlos Guerra (Amposta, 1965). Guerra is an art critic, teacher and researcher. He has been director of the Primavera Fotográfica de Catalunya and of La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, chief curator of the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) and director of the Fundació Antoni Tàpies. His research deals with dialogic practices in the fields of art and visual culture.