English
Following the idea that inspired the exhibition Volumen that Barcelona´s Contemporary Art Museum develops, on the 28th of September the exhibition Between the Frames: The Forum by the Catalan artist Antoni Muntadas is inaugurated. This was made over a period of 10 years, between 1983 and 1993, and it´s part of the MACBA collection.
Antoni Muntadas, born in Barcelona in 1942, is considered to be one of the most important contemporary artists in the world. His conceptual work based on an incursion to the domain of mass media and his relation with politics and domination has meant that he´s a reference in all the biennials and exhibitions around the world, for the current subjects that communications have on the neoliberal sustainment system.
The work Between the Frames: The Forum is linked with the series that Muntadas created in 2005 with On Translation: Stand By. It was followed, in 2007, by On Translation: Miedo/Jauf which is still in process. This work deals with social fears, that subjective construction that underlies in the subconscious and that is organized from the media as forms of social control. Fear, according to the work, starts building from the power through the messages. On Translation: Miedo/Jauf is a visual exhibition where Muntadas uses televisions where he broadcasts collages, images, interviews and press headlines, taped both in Tarifa and Tangiers.
Between the Frames: The Forum is organized in different rooms to ask and talk about art, look and admire the tensions that the different actors on stage provoke at work, like collectors, guides, merchants, museums, media, critics and artists. The images on video are passed onto televisions and they follow a text which refers to art and politics in the 80s, the time of Ronald Reagan, François Mitterrand, Felipe González and Mikhail Gorbachev; years of a bipolar world where the Cold War lived its last few years.
This work becomes crucial in the reconstruction of memory, not only of art history, but also of present history, because many of the characters that are interviewed by Muntadas don´t exist anymore, and the only thing that remains are their register and the outlook on a time where changes gave way to globalization, neoliberalist economic dominance and media society.
This work was presented in 1994 in the Wexner Center for Arts of the University of Ohio State, where Muntadas designed a platform that took in the participants of a virtual forum where the opinions of those interviewed appeared.
For more information: http://www.macba.cat/controller.php?p_action=show_page&pagina_id=52&inst_id=30278?=ESP&PHPSESSID=in8hhgouu8e72vbst7qru0at26
Nancy Guzman
The 80s marked a turning point in the history of mankind. During that time politics and the geopolitical division that would shape our days were forged, and therefore this exhibition is unmissable for those who like history, art and politics. So if you´re relaxing in apartments in Barcelona come to MACBA and enjoy it.
Translated by: aleixgwilliam
