S.M.A.K. presents the group exhibition Resistance. The Power of the Image, in which some twenty Spanish artists examine the role of images in the fight for democratic values.
This group exhibition explores how, since the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), Spanish artists have used art as a form of resistance, to demand new rights and to denounce injustice. A pivotal moment in this history was the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 World Fair in Paris, where the horrors of the Spanish Civil War were brought to an international stage through a wide range of art forms. For the occasion, Picasso created Guernica, a painting that remains an enduring symbol of resistance and of art’s role therein.
Resistance. The Power of the Image focuses on two pivotal moments in Spain’s democratization process when art emerged as a political instrument. First, the 1970s – the final years of resistance to Franco’s dictatorship (1936-1975) and the country’s transition to democracy. Second, the past decade, shaped by a new wave of protest – including the Indignados movement – in response to the banking and property crises and a broader erosion of democratic principles.
With works by: Carlos Aires, Xavier Arenós, Pilar Aymerich, Alán Carrasco, Colita, Lúa Coderch, Eli Cortiňas, Daniel G. Andujar, Ana García-Pineda, Eulàlia Grau, Núria Güell, Agustín Ibarrola, José Ortega, Joan Rabascall, Josep Renau, María Ruido, Avelino Sala, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Diego del Pozo Barriuso and Darío Villalba.
Curated by Spanish independent curator Marta Ramos-Yzquierdo and Sam Steverlynck, curator at S.M.A.K.