War memories Spanish graphic artist maps horrors of fascism

The map of Paco Roca's mind, a landscape of memory and loss, unfolds across the walls of an exhibition hall in Madrid, inviting visitors to acquaint themselves with the bittersweet geographies that have shaped the work of one of Spain's best-known graphic artists.

- Sam Jones

Roca, whose comics have explored themes such as Francoist reprisals, the exiled Spanish republicans who helped liberate Paris from the Nazis, family histories and Alzheimer's, is the subject of a show at the Instituto Cervantes called Memory: An Emotional Journey Through the Comics of Paco Roca.

Staged as part of a year-long programme of events to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Franco and Spain's subsequent return to democracy, the exhibition looks at how the 56-year-old artist has recovered, preserved and shared memories and testimonies.

"The idea was to make it all look like an encyclopedia or a set of Victorian maps because... it's an atlas - a collection of maps that chronicle the journey of creating a comic," said Roca.

"There are three panels about memory: historical memory; memory and identity; and family memory. The maps try to show what's involved in the creation of any artistic work, whether it's a comic or a film or a novel."