Art and Propaganda by the deed.

ACVic Centre d’Arts Contemporànies. Vic. 10.10.2019 – 11.01.2020

Escola Massana-Espai Busquets. Barcelona. 18.9.2020–6.11.2020

This exhibition is modelled on new artistic practices inspired by libertarianist ideas which are currently happening in Spain. Practices which, beyond their own political content, are political on account of their conditions of production and distribution, unconnected to arts institutions, and attempting to overlap with particular social movements. In the last few years, a series of meetings may be mapped out in which we attempted a collective reconsideration regarding the relationship between art and anarchy, and for which the presence of libertarian activism was inseparable: Arte y propaganda libertaria ( Libertarian art and propaganda) (Madrid, 2015) , ANARCO (Valencia 2016-17), the Jornadas de Arte y Creatividad Anarquistas (Anarchist Art and Creativity Days) (Madrid, 2015-2019).

The common denominator of these experiences [meetings] was that they were based on self-management and mutual help, where the hierarchical procedures of the art institution were abandoned in search of horizontal instruments of organisation through assemblies and affinity groups, questioning the usual figures of authority and legitimation in the arts system.

Anarchist aesthetics was also a key point in the organisation of these experiences [meetings]. In accordance with André Reszler’s observation, these mainly correspond to two currents; one which gives the artist total self-expressive freedom of creation as an individual, rejecting any conditioning external to her/ his will and, on the other hand, one which identifies with the necessities for agitation and propaganda. Although in the present time the first current may be perfectly reconciled with the liberal idea of art, we consider that a true contemporary anarchist aesthetic must respond to the idea of agit-prop, considering that, apart from the value we may attribute to agit-prop from the perspective of Boris Groys when he states that art’s political potential can show itself more powerfully in predominantly political contexts of production than in commercial ones, we can also see its power to form alliances with transformational social and political movements.

This project takes a documentary approach to these experiences, since by their very nature it is impossible to reproduce them in an institutional framework. However we believe it is important to show them in the framework of the discussion of the political effectiveness as well as the educational aspects of art, experiences which can mostly serve as an instrument in other struggles.

To reflect these practices, this exhibition includes:

BYRON MAHER/ SINDICATO DE MANTEROS

Byron Maher, visual artist, designer and member of the Sindicato de Manteros de Madrid (Street Merchants’ Trade Union of Madrid) puts creative tools in the group’s service to develop various protest and awareness-raising campaigns, focusing on a denunciation of institutional racism.

CDR JOAN REBULL

The CDR Joan Rebull exhibits part of its protest actions as well as various materials for mass distribution, from leaflets to shirts, associated with its political and propaganda work in the town of Reus.

EN CONTINGENCIA

Originating as the agit-prop section of the CNT union branch at Línea Directa, En Contingencia, through an interactive installation, provides an examination of the nature of waged labour. As part of this installation, posters made for communications of the trade union branch within the company will also be shown.

LAURA PINTA CAZZANIGA

Laura Pinta Cazzaniga presents the photographic series En el Walden [trabajadoras en lucha] ( “In the Walden [workers in struggle]”) which highlights the struggle of cleaners in the context of a celebrated example of architecture with utopian aspirations, raising awareness of work done by women and demonstrating the burden of conflict whichmust often be borne.

SITESIZE

Sitesize presents Aproximaciones Mujeres Zona Sur (Women’s Approaches in the South Zone), a project dedicated to the Torresoto district in the town of Jerez de la Frontera. Through 10 video-capsules, conversations and reflections are collected describing the work carried out by the women’s district association, about their daily lives and how they live, reflecting on how care-work may overturn the patriarchal paradigm.

MONTE PERDIDO

Monte Perdido 60 Bis, a collective of residents in one of the buildings liberated by the social work of the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (the House Repossession Victims’ Group), which presents an approach from within to the struggle for housing and the experience of squatting through both documentary and aesthetic expressions.

EL PRESSENTIMENT

El Pressentiment defines itself as the weapon with which Espai en Blanc (supporting critical, collective and experimental thinking) intervenes in the current combat of thought. El Pressentiment takes shape through a flyer which is free to copy and distribute, of which there have been 82 editions to date, as well as “microvideos” distributed by internet.