Treball col·lectiu sobre els artistes participants a Documenta 4 (1968) i Documenta 5 (1972) a Kassel, 1973

In this work, Grup de Treball verified the prices of artists participating in Documenta 4 (1968) and Documenta 5 (1972) in Kassel, Germany, from the 1973 edition of Enrique Mayer’s Annuaire lnternational des Ventes. As a reference they used the prices fetched by these artists for works sold between 1 January and 31 December 1972. Included in the list of artists are Joseph Beuys, Eduardo Chillida, Öyvind Fahlström, Lucio Fontana, Donald Judd, Bruce Naumann, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Robert Rauschenberg, Sol LeWitt, Andy Warhol and Jean Tinguely. ‘Like a stock index, these lists of artists and prices pose a clear denunciation of the established channels of dissemination of art, and in particular of the interests of big events – like Documenta – by imposing aesthetic discourses and promoting some artists over others.’ (Grup de Treball. Barcelona. MACBA, 1999, p. 125 [exh. cat.].)

In addition to this work, the catalogue presented at the Fifth Catalan Summer University of Prada de Conflent included a text-manifesto. This is the first text that is signed with the name of the group and can be considered their first programmatic document. The artists putting their name to it were Francesc Abad, Jordi Benito, Alicia Fingerhut, Antoni Mercader, Muntadas, Àngels Ribé, Manuel Rovira, Enric Sales, Carles Santos, Dorothée Selz and Francesc Torres. The three key points in the text are the renunciation of artistic practice as a trend, the rejection of art as a bourgeois and elitist phenomenon, and the intention to give art a social function.

The catalogue was presented together with the exhibition of individual works by some of the artists in the group, such as Francesc Abad, Muntadas, Jordi Benito, Alicia Fingerhut, Dorothée Selz and Manuel Rovira. Alongside the exhibition, the group also organised lectures and roundtables on the avant-garde, political ideology and Conceptual practice, and an informative exhibition on Conceptual art, similar to the one the group had presented that same year in the course of their meetings in Banyoles. This was a time of consolidation for the group. But while its theoretical apparatus was clear, they had been unable to corroborate it with actions, press releases and interventions. The Catalan Summer University gave them the opportunity to put this into practice.