1979. A MONUMENT TO RADICAL MOMENTS
JESÚS ATIENZA Institut Mental de la Santa Creu (Pi i Molist). Barcelona, 1979. Courtesy: Virreina Centre de la Imatge
It is not the same thing to store data from the past as it is to be aware of the historicity of human elements and consequently articulate an exhibition discourse with a face and eyes. And it is precisely this that has been achieved by Carles Guerra with 1979. Un monumento a instantes radicales, the show he is presenting at the Palau de la Virreina, which offers viewers a panoramic and singularly heterogeneous journey through a series of historical events which initially don’t seem to share anything more than a date, but which, each in their own context, possess an important common denominator: changing attitudes in the face of the late-Capitalist world. A turning point which is translated, and not by chance, into different kinds of revolutions, political changes, mass strikes and all kinds of protests which ultimately express the dignity of the struggle against a brutal power and the right to freedom and justice.
As often happens with research pieces, Guerra reveals a striking capacity to find and convey relevant information without succumbing to trivial or unnecessary elements. He opens the show with the cover of an issue of the Ya newspaper, from the 30th of December 1978, announcing the dissolution of the Courts, the calling of general elections and the constitution coming into force. This reminds us, unexpectedly, of the fact that politics define history. The revolutions in Nicaragua and Iran, the arrival into power of Margaret Thatcher, the first local democratic order and the publication of The Post-Modern Condition, by Jean-François Lyotard, among many other important milestones, make up the history of 1979. All of these events took place far from one another, and shared no connections of causality, yet we eventually come to interpret them in a unitary way, defined by The Aesthetics of Resistance, the monumental novel by Peter Weiss, a masterful proclamation against conformism, which marks the heart of the exhibition.
Although most of the works date from 1979, there are some deliberately-included pieces from previous years, such as Robert Koehler’s The Strike, an 1886 painting which captures the tense confrontation between a factory owner and his workers, between the oppressed classes and their oppressor, which anticipated, in a premonitory way, the consequences of the implementation of abusive capitalist and social-democratic policies in an increasingly global world. On this basis, Guerra situates the viewer before highly recognisable scenes, through a spectacular display of paintings, films, photographs, documentaries, texts, songs and objects, judiciously presented and combined. And, unlikely as it may seem, the most important thing about them is the signature they bear: among others, that of Philippe Van Snick, Marine Hugonnier, Marcelo Brodsky, Marguerite Duras, Francis Ford Coppola, Joseph Beuys, Harun Farocki, Pep Cunties and Jesús Atienza.
It is difficult for someone to lead us to remember the most significant elements of a historic moment, making us, at the same time, reflect and enjoy its landscapes. This requires more than a good supply of data. It is necessary to know how to use them, so that they can offer interpretations and responses which may be fundamentally applied to the present time. Guerra achieves this by decanting the past and mixing Margaret Thatcher with Ayatollah Khomeini, the Walkman with Apocalypse Now, UFOs with revolutionary changes, etc. However, he goes beyond this and reminds us of something we should never forget: if we do not nurture the great moral advances of our civilisation, they may be ruined in the future, along with the sacrifices made in order to achieve them.
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