The Universitat de València has opened the exhibition ‘Neither Captive nor Disarmed. Art, Memory and Pain versus Politics [or violence] in/from [Spain from] the 20th Century (in the collections 9915 and Martínez Guerricabeitia)’. A forceful title, “long and resonant” which reminds one of a political wall poster in the way it moves beyond the social art to the political in the Martínez Guerricabeitia Collection.
Commissioned by art critic Alfonso de la Torre, the exhibition presents 40 art pieces including paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs and videos. It is exhibited in Sala Martínez Guerricabeitia of Centre Cultural La Nau of the UV starting today until 2 October and brings together the collections of fifteen private collectors from 9915 Association and the UV’s Martínez Guerricabeitia Collection.
The exhibition has been opened by vice-principal Antonio Ariño; the director of the collection, José Pedro Martínez; the president of the 9915 Association, Jaime Sordo; as well as the exhibition curator.
“It is an exhibition which reflects on the persistence of violence and pain as matters of art”, tells the commissioner. This is evident in the “almost propaganda’ title which corresponds to the last dispatch by General Francisco Franco: “Today, with the Red Army captive and disarmed...”. With the title ‘Neither Captive nor Disarmed’, we have evoked that political art” adds De la Torre.
For the Madrid-born critic, the exhibition ‘Neither Captive nor Disarmed’ looks at the Martínez Guerricabeitia Collection -most of it is exhibited until 28 August in Bancaja Cultural Centre- appealing to a more complex art than the so-called “social art” from that time, Francoism, directing it to an art from XXI century, where violence, pain and horror are still protagonists in society, politics and culture. “This exhibition extracts art from the social and political context in which Martínez Guerricabeitia lived, Francoism, to become a more intense reflection about violence and horror”, he points out.
Thus, the exhibition is divided into four chapters. The first chapter, titled ‘Silence (and not)- Coming and Going’ starts with Juana Francés’ gag painting. This work together with paintings of Darío Villalba, Antonio Saura (the scream emitted when abandoned in a crucifixion), Santiago Ydáñez, Concha Jerez (censored texts), de Yoan Capote (torture) and Joan Fontcuberta (‘Guantanamo’: conceived through the work with Google) as well as Eduardo Naves’ Normandy Landings photograph, highlight the pain and reflect on its attraction, a transversal issue in the art in all times.
In the second part, titled “Stories”, Simeón Sáiz Ruiz tells us about the battle of Sarajevo in a painting, which is discovered through the press, represented represented in a collage of 30 photographs by Nunes Ferreira with the most impressive and cruel headlines in the history of universal journalism. Another photograph from Eugenio Ampudia’s collection can also be seen ‘Where to sleep’, a project with wich the author invites people to sleep in symbolic areas. In this case, Museo del Prado is the stage: on the wall, ‘The Executions’ by Goya; and on the floor, a person rests inert under the canvas, maintaining a parallel posture to the executed higher up. “They are fallen bodies... For Ampudia, sleep is an act of resistance”, explains the commissioner. ‘Andy Warhols’ assasination’ by Kepa Garraza or a charcoal drawing by Rinus Van de Velde conclude this chapter.
‘Spanish caprice’ is the third chapter of the exhibition and is composed exclusively of photographs. Approximately twenty photographers, photojournalists and artists exhibit here part of their work, which is now part of the private 9915 Collection. This is the case with one of the six original copies of Robert Capa’s ‘The Falling Soldier’ from the Himalaya Collection. Catalá Roca, García Alix, Cristina García Rodero (Magnum Photos), Ramón Masats (‘Seminaristas jugando a fútbol’ [Seminary students playing football]), Francisco Ontañón, Carlos Saura, Equipo Realidad… are some of the authors of the pictures with which Alfonso de la Torre attempts to present the chronicle of the Francoist Spain, between 1950-1980.
The last chapter is ‘Eternal return and now’, where photography, painting, drawing, sculpture and video go hand-in-hand in order to exhibit the horror of war since the 70s until 2000. Carlos Garaicoa’s surveillance points in constant strategic zones of the American fight; the bombing of Teheran, titled by Miguel Aguirre as ‘The Starry Night’; the bombing of Guernica by Eduardo Arroyo; ‘The Spectator’ by Equipo Crónica, Francoism’s censor; Rafael Canogar and censorship; etcetera.
And as a grand finalé, Víctor Mira’s painting portraying a deaf Spain opening to a hopeless end, and two animated videos in which fight for life is defended by Sergio Belinchón and Ruth Gómez.
‘Neither Captive nor Disarmed’ is a reflection on contemporary violence and pain, a topic haunting, and even tormenting, the artist and the art world, especially since the arrival of surrealism in confrontation with conventional , traditional, sacred or realist art. Museums and art centres dedicate now all efforts to this issue, such as Guggenheim or City of Paris’ Museum of Modern Art with the exhibition ‘Art and War’, exhibited a couple of years ago; also Juan March Foundation has just closed the exhibition ‘The Unseen’, about the relationship between war and art; Tàpies Foundation, which exhibits ‘Documents of Action’; or Picasso Museum, which will open an exhibition regarding this theme titled ‘Cubism and war’.
Organised by Vice-Principal for Culture and Equality through the Martínez Guerricabeitia Collection of the University of Valencia General Foundation with the participation of 9915 Association and the collaboration of Banco Santander and Heineken España S.A., the exhibition also offers free guided tours to be booked via e-mail visites.guiades@uv.es or calling the telephone number 963.864.922, as well as free educational activities through activitatspmg@fundacio.es and 677.027.357.
Alfonso de la Torre, theorist and art critic
Alfonso de la Torre (Madrid, 1960) is a theorist and art critic, specialist in Contemporary Spanish Art and renowned specialist in the artwork of Madrilenian artist Gerardo Rueda, of whom he did a biographical study. He has organised more than a hundred exhibitions, published essays and poetry, and has offered courses in universities and institutions such as Centre Pompidou Málaga, MNCARS, Teruel Museum, University of Los Andes, University of Córdoba, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Menéndez Pelayo International University or Paris-Sorbonne University.
Since 2005, he has been organising an annual programme consisting of artistic interventions in public space (Ámbito Cultural-El Corte Inglés) during ARCOmadrid week; he is also responsible for one of the most complete studies on birth and evolution of the art market in Spain since post-war until today; he is vice president of Pilar Citoler Foundation; and has been in charge of Circa XX Collection since 1999 and currently manages the maintenance of New Collection of Government of Aragon.
His next project, after organising ‘Neither Captive nor Disarmed’ for the UV, is the exhibition ‘Carmen Calvo: todo procede de la sinrazón’ [“Carmen Calvo: everything springs from senselessness”] destined for the venue Alcalá 31 of the Government of Madrid.
Last update: 21 de june de 2016 13:30.
News release
