Grup de Treball (Grup d'artistes)
Treball col·lectiu: proposta a la crítica
Collective Work: Criticism Proposal
1973
Edited by the art critic Daniel Giralt-Miracle, in the winter of 1974 the magazine Qüestions d’Art published a special issue coordinated by Grup de Treball. In his editorial, Giralt-Miracle recognised attitude art and Conceptual art as a tangible reality in Catalonia. Besides the texts of each member, Grup de Treball put their names to four collective texts: the back cover, a kind of manifesto positioning the group; the text originally presented by Carles Santos in Banyoles in February-March 1973 and now signed collectively; a part of the Document-resposta a Tàpies (Document in response to Tàpies) in March of that year; and a programmatic text that the group had presented at the Universitat Catalana d’Estiu (Catalan Summer University) at Prada de Conflent, also in 1973, the first text to be signed as Grup de Treball.
In parallel to the magazine, Grup de Treball initiated the project entitled Treball Col·lectiu: proposta a la crítica, which saw a collection of texts by Grup de Treball sent to various art critics for comment. In autumn 1973, these texts were sent to 36 critics in Barcelona and Madrid, and one in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with the intention of initiating a dialogue with the art critics of the country. The recipients included Juan Manuel Bonet, Maria Lluïsa Borràs, Alexandre Cirici Pellicer, Josep Corredor-Matheos, Daniel Giralt-Miracle, Simón Marchán and Joan Perucho. An outline of the project was published on page 48 of the magazine Qüestions d’Art, together with some of the responses received.
Of all the responses, the most notable was that of Simón Marchán, one of the more outspoken critics in dialogue with Grup de Treball. He believed Conceptual art,which had arrived in Spain under the influence of the Anglo-Saxon world, and neo-positivism had already been surpassed, a fact that he valued highly, since this had generated an awareness of specific artistic, political and social issues. But Marchán added that this also entailed some danger, what he called the ‘ghost of realism’, and that consequently Grup de Treball should not stay anchored in a strictly theoretical and discursive work.
This work should be seen in relation to others in this second phase of Grup de Treball. If during 1973 the group had consolidated, 1974 was a time of radicalisation and the opening of a wider platform of discussion. While one focus of the group’s interest was the political situation and social repression under the Franco regime, another was the critical debate on the distribution channels of art and their sometimes opaque mechanisms, together with denouncing the commodification of art in the hands of an exclusively bourgeois market.
In parallel to the magazine, Grup de Treball initiated the project entitled Treball Col·lectiu: proposta a la crítica, which saw a collection of texts by Grup de Treball sent to various art critics for comment. In autumn 1973, these texts were sent to 36 critics in Barcelona and Madrid, and one in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with the intention of initiating a dialogue with the art critics of the country. The recipients included Juan Manuel Bonet, Maria Lluïsa Borràs, Alexandre Cirici Pellicer, Josep Corredor-Matheos, Daniel Giralt-Miracle, Simón Marchán and Joan Perucho. An outline of the project was published on page 48 of the magazine Qüestions d’Art, together with some of the responses received.
Of all the responses, the most notable was that of Simón Marchán, one of the more outspoken critics in dialogue with Grup de Treball. He believed Conceptual art,which had arrived in Spain under the influence of the Anglo-Saxon world, and neo-positivism had already been surpassed, a fact that he valued highly, since this had generated an awareness of specific artistic, political and social issues. But Marchán added that this also entailed some danger, what he called the ‘ghost of realism’, and that consequently Grup de Treball should not stay anchored in a strictly theoretical and discursive work.
This work should be seen in relation to others in this second phase of Grup de Treball. If during 1973 the group had consolidated, 1974 was a time of radicalisation and the opening of a wider platform of discussion. While one focus of the group’s interest was the political situation and social repression under the Franco regime, another was the critical debate on the distribution channels of art and their sometimes opaque mechanisms, together with denouncing the commodification of art in the hands of an exclusively bourgeois market.
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