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Cartell del col·lectiu "Solidaritat amb el moviment obrer", 1973

Poster of the Group "Solidarity with the Worker's Movement", 1973
Graphic material, 50 x 80 cm

As the title of the work suggests, this is a poster printed in April 1973 and distributed in a clandestine manner on the occasion of the anniversary of the Second Spanish Republic, proclaimed on 14 April 1931. The poster’s print run and distribution were intended to raise money for the collective Solidarity with the Working-Class Movement, formed by the defenders of freedom in order to help political prisoners and their families. Antoni Mercader, one of the more active members of Grup de Treball, explains: ‘The piece, of an “art-and-language” type, consisted of a photographic enlargement of the entries repressió (repression), repressiu-iva (repressive) and repressor-a (repressor) in the Pompeu Fabra dictionary.’ The reference to the Franco regime is obvious, as is the avowed defence of the Catalan language. Equally, the piece evokes the type of conceptual work that reflects on the relation between art and language.

This is the first artwork with clear anti-Francoist implications and it belongs to a moment of consolidation during which Grup de Treball put into practice imaginative and efficient ways of integrating art into society. ‘During this period, the group undertook the important theoretical task of agitation and artistic practice debate from the point of view of dialectical materialism and class struggle, with a profound awareness of the local artistic situation and the need to turn artistic practice into a tool for agitation through language and information.’ (Pilar Parcerisas: ‘El Grup de Treball: arte e ideología política’, Grup de Treball. Barcelona: MACBA, 1999, p. 127 [exh. cat.].) Although, from an aesthetic point of view, the poster is close to the analytical and tautological work of Joseph Kosuth, what matters in this work is the content and the risk-taking attitude, something that differentiates it from the linguistic practices of the American artist.

In common with other works by the group, such as Recorreguts (1973), Treball col·lectiu que consisteix a verificar la distribució de 44 professions entre 113 persones segons una nota apareguda últimament a la prensa (1973), and Champ d’attraction (1975), here ideological and political repression becomes the object of analysis and denunciation in the hands of artistic practice. Grup de Treball qualified these types of works as ‘politically engaged’, adding that these were works that ‘took on board the project of political transition that began a few years later by engaging in the social discourse that led to it’.


Technical details

Original title:
Cartell del col·lectiu "Solidaritat amb el moviment obrer"
Registration number:
0490
Artist:
Grup de Treball (Grup d'artistes)
Date created:
1973
Date acquired:
1997
Fonds:
MACBA Collection. Government of Catalonia long-term loan
Object type:
Graphic material
Media:
Printed ink on paper
Dimensions:
50 x 80 cm (height x width)
Credits:
MACBA Collection. Government of Catalonia long-term loan. National Collection of Art
Copyright:
© Grup de Treball
It has accessibility resources:
No

The MACBA Collection features Catalan, Spanish and international art and, although it includes works from the 1920s onwards, its primary focus is on the period between the 1960s and the present.

For more information on the work or the artist, please consult MACBA's Library. To request a loan of the work, please write to colleccio [at] macba.cat.

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