The term ‘sicaliptico’ appears for the first time in 1902 to announce an erotic work collected in the newspaper El Liberal. This cultism is composed by the terms σῦκον (sỹkon, ‘higo’, ‘vulva’) and ἀλειπτικός (aleiptikós, ‘masajeador’), whose employability comprehended and defined a literary and visual production that captured the erotic mischievousness and encouraged sexual stimulation. ‘La cultura sicalíptica’ was a phenomenon expressed through the mass media during the first third of the 20st century, giving place to an extended production of copies that obeyed a massive consume demanded by the citizenship. This group of writers, editors and artists that, most of the time using pseudonyms and the anonymity to avoid the censorship of the publisher and social rejection, participated in the cultural scene of the Silver Age together with intellectuality, scandalized by considering this type of protests immoral and obscene.
The exhibition, curated by Javier Martínez, collects a compendium of ‘materiales sicalípticos’ that come from the Infern by Rafael Solaz; bibliophile and Valencian collector whose contribution to the cultural field has been rewarded with the recognition as Favoured Son in the city of Valencia . This section from his private exhibition comprehends sources that were considered sinful, dangerous and prohibited, motivating their persecution and destruction by the Franco regime. The exhibit presents a discourse conformed by novels, magazines, photographs, drawings, post cards and hygiene and sexology treaties, through which it is intended to question topics like sexuality, gender roles, hetero-patriarchal system, objectification and sexualisation of women, custom and common behaviour, socio-political context and finally, bibliographic and patrimonial database.
Private collection of Rafael Solaz
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Private collection of Rafael Solaz
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