The Plaza de Antón Martín, between Lavapiés and the Barrio de las Letras literary quarter, is home to this sculpture that pays tribute to the labour lawyers murdered in their office at No. 55 Calle Atocha street. On 24 January 1977, a group of far-right extremists burst into their offices and gunned down five left-wing lawyers who were associated with the Comisiones Obreras trade union and the Spanish Communist Party, wounding four others. The monument was unveiled on 10th June 2003
Approved by Madrid City Council in 2002 and promoted by Comisiones Obreras, the monument is a three-dimensional adaptation of the painting “Amnesty” created by the Valencian painter Juan Genovés in 1976 and currently housed in the Reina Sofia Museum, Spain. It was used during the Spanish Transition to democracy to demand the release and amnesty of political prisoners. Genovés himself was in charge of turning it into a sculpture, the first one he made in his professional career. The piece, made of bronze, represents a circle of people united in a group hug; it is 3.5 m in diameter and 4 m in height, with a white stone base and anti-graffiti protection. The statue was cast at the foundry "Arte6".
On 24 January 2007, on the 30th anniversary of the massacre, a commemorative plaque was added to the bottom of the monument that reads: “To the lawyers of Atocha: if the echo of their voice weakens, we will perish”, an adaptation of an excerpt from a poem by Paul Éluard.
The painter Juan Genovés was born in Valencia in 1930, where he trained at the Royal Academy of San Carlos. A member of the groups Los Siete, Parpalló, Hondo and the ASAP (Association of Plastic Artists), he travelled to Paris in 1955, where he learned about informalism and new artistic currents. His work, with its strong political and social commitment, is represented in major museums and collections around the world. He received the National Plastic Arts Award in 1984.
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Photographs:
Copyright © 2018 Antonello Dellanotte
