REVIEW
Temporary Exhibition
The democratic skylight : an illuminating exhibition
Ricard Conesa Sánchez Historian , project officer EUROM
“ It ends up being an exhibition where you don ’ t really know if it is about history , art history or aesthetics . It does not come from any of these disciplines and it comes from all of them at the same time ”. This is how Núria Ricart , a professor of Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona , described the exhibition El tragaluz democrático . Políticas de vida y muerte en el Estado español ( 1868-1976 ) (“ The democratic skylight : policies of life and death in Spain ( 1868-1976 ))”. This multidisciplinary vision is one of the great milestones of this original exhibition that could be seen in the new hall of La Arquería Art Centre in Madrid from March to July 2023 . But beyond this quality , it is perhaps its daring approach that has drawn the most attention of its visitors . As its curator , Germán Labrador , explained : “ What the exhibition seeks is a radical estrangement of our own history and a deconstruction of the myths that have articulated it on a national level , putting in the foreground struggles for life , for dignity , the demands of subjects and groups that had been denied in a modernity implemented according to the needs of the capitalist market and the nation-state ”.
A large amount of paintings , sculptures , posters , photographs , videos , archival documents , publications and objects of various kinds ( from a garrot , or a whip made of wood , leather and wires , to folkloric elements such as a big head or a giant ) populated an intense tour through two floors of the impressive La Arquería . Walter Benjamin ’ s theories underlay this constellation of fragments of a collective past that glimpsed constant tension
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Observing Memories Issue 7