7 contents
Diving into art, activism, and history
«Ep, innocenta, / ¿saps que en aquesta maror / no mos queda altre remei / que aprendre a bucejar? […]» (‘Hey there, innocent, / do you know that in this rough sea / for us there’s no other remedy / than learning how to underwater dive? […]’), writes Mari Chordà in one of her poems.
The journey we propose offers, precisely, a set of tools for learning how to dive. In this exploration, we encounter the dialogue between nature and artifice as presented by Fina Miralles; Maite Garbayo’s historiographical research on the performances of the 1970s in Spain, which can be interpreted through a feminist activism lens; Carol Rama’s practice, which uses dissident desire and the valorization of the unconscious as strategies of resistance against normalization; Eulàlia Grau’s appropriation of media imagery to critique educational institutions, the family, and gender stereotypes; Nancy Spero’s commitment to creating subversive art through the form of manifestos; the inseparable intersection of artist, poet, and activist in Mari Chordà’s figure, as she embraces feminism; and the necessary re-readings of art history, alongside the recognition of feminist genealogies, found in the collection of articles in Desacuerdos 7.
Together, they form a vast reservoir of oxygen that keeps expanding, taking the shape of a collection of books that guide us through the most turbulent waters.
Guided by her unwavering social, political and cultural commitment, Chordà set up Lo Llar cultural centre in Amposta and, with a group of other women, later founded laSal, Bar-biblioteca feminista, a feminist bar and library, and laSal, edicions de les dones, a publishing house specialising in literature and essays written by and for women. Chordà was also a pioneer in her generation to express free female sexuality and to address pleasure, motherhood and lesbian relationships in her painting and in her poetry.
‘Being an artist isn’t a vocation, a devotion or a profession; you’re not aware of it, but everything pushes you towards it and drives you to being who you are.’ With these words, Fina Miralles sums up her life.
Ignored for decades by official history of art discourses, Carol Rama can be considered today to be one of the essential artists for understanding twentieth century production. Through a selection of 120 works and essays by Beatriz Preciado, Anne Dressen and Teresa Grandas, and the contributions of a selection of artists, writers, musicians…, this publication proposes an attempt to recognise and restore a life’s work still unknown but nevertheless slated to become classic.
Her photomontages, which include images taken from the media, denounce the institutions of education and family, gender stereotypes, class differences, worker exploitation and the structures on which power is founded. The catalogue reproduces a selection of works on which an article by Teresa Grandas, curator of the exhibition, provides a comprehensive commentary.
