2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of one of the most important artists, Pablo Ruiz Picasso, and 86 years since the bombing of Guernica and the creation of one of the most powerful anti-war paintings in history: Guernica. A painting that was painted at the request of the Republican government for the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exhibition. A painting that is as relevant today as when it was created. While finishing the painting, Picasso was not sure if the painting should stay black and white, so he decided to test it by placing layers of colored paper on the painting, but decided to remove all the papers in the end, except for one piece: a red tear. In the studio, Picasso told the Spanish writer José Bergamín: "We're going to keep this tear, and when Guernica is installed in the pavilion, every Friday you'll be in charge of putting the tear where you think it looks best, always in the eyes.”. The Persistent Action of a Falling Tear, a mechanical construction cuts Guernica’s never-included tears, providing time and space for the past tears to be present. Tears that can be individual, symbolic, societal, and cultural connecting tears in disconnected times, carrying fragility, injustice, history, and memories.
