The story of the life and death of Jesus is arguably the most ubiquitous story ever told. Translated to every language, vastly circulated, taught in schools all around the world, conservative groups –except for some exemptions, like Liberation Theology- have held monopoly of this narrative for the longest time. However, like every other narrative, it is not totally closed to resignification and oppositional and negotiated readings.
The artist I chose to focus on personally is the photographer Cristina Garcia Rodero. I used photos from her photography essay España Oculta, in which Rodero traveled to small villages in Spain to document the resident’s lives. Our group's main focus is on gender issues, and I personally wanted to focus on activism involving women and representation. Rodero uses photos of rituals and activities among those outside of the majority population.
First cut the banks! In 2012 Bankia declared itself bankrupt and, almost immediately, asked the Government of Spain for €23 billion. The Government accepted, yet that very same week ordered €20,000 million worth of cuts in health and education. It was then that we realized that what they called a crisis was actually a scam. You wouldn’t believe how pissed off we were. So we threw a party, because there is nothing like partying to relieve your anger.
"If you want something different, do something really different."
And they did it!
Spain, January 1st 2013, an anonymous device was launched through the networks combining a communication guerrilla with a political-electoral aesthetic. The video used for take-off went viral receiving 200.000 visits in 48h: https://youtu.be/90deuJiQfTw
58,241 evictions were conducted in Spain in 2011, mostly through real estate speculation by the Mediterranean Savings Bank. In Intervention #1, the artist created a cooperative through which she contracted a construction worker (who himself had been evicted from his own house) to remove the entrance doors to other foreclosed properties. In this way, houses were accessible and open to public use, and occupants were not liable for housebreaking.
Francisco Goya created “The Disasters of War” from 1810-1820. These 80 etchings and aquatints show scenes from the Spanish struggle against the French army under Napolean Bonaparte, who invaded Spain in 1808. When Napolean tried to install his brother Joseph Bonaparte, as King of Spain, the Spanish fought back, eventually aided by the British and the Portugese.
Fundacion Voces and Festival Mulafest got together to promote creative ideas for social change. They started a campaign in social media to ask people to donate their Vespa motorcycles. After they collected the Vespas donated by the people, they put them together again and invited known artists to intervene them.
Late last year the Spanish government passed a law that set extreme fines for protesters convening outside of government buildings.
In response to the controversial Citizen Safety Law, which will take effect on July 1, Spanish activists have staged the world's first ever virtual political demonstration.
Francisco Ibáñez Gorostidi (known as "Paco Ibáñez") is a spanish singer that has dedicated almost all his career to turning poems by classical and contemporary spanish and latin american authors into songs.
The Spanish 15M/INDIGNADOS social movement represents a citizen break-up with the current political system while proposing an alternative one, creatively transforming the prevailing participation and action patterns in its society.
Spanish soccer has witnessed and engaged in a variety of conversations in the last few years: Racism, politics, xenophobia, territorial issues, corruption, inmigration. However, there is an issue that remains untouched, and this issue is homophobia. Soccer is still a context where it is acceptable to use the word "marica" ("queer") in a pejorative way.
Despite a consistent increase in the protest and denouncement of animal abuse across the nation, Spain’s cultural linkage to bullfighting has continued to withstand the test of time. During a typical bullfighting event, six bulls are brutally tortured and killed, and in Spain alone, over 35,000 bulls are slaughtered by sport each year (World Animal Foundation, 2021).
The Yayoflautas, or Iaioflautas is an organized group of senior citizens from different cities and regions of Spain. Like many others, the movement started during the first months of life of the 15-M movement, in Barcelona.
The crisis is here, let the party begin! April 30, 2009. At first the crisis was just a state of being, a kind of social sadness that paralyzed everything. To break this atmosphere we couldn’t think of anything better than to throw a party. The first thing you need for a party is a good location, so we set out to find a place where social sadness and fear were extremely present. It didn’t take us long to find one: an unemployment office.
As massacres, civil wars, and violence permeated communities, people have searched for asylum in other countries. Due to its location and relative safety, Spain has become a common destination for immigrants seeking a better life. Female immigrants in particular tend to experience much more arduous journeys in that they frequently are subjugated to sexual abuse.
Whether or not they follow politics, it’s fair to assume most people don’t actually read electoral programs. Podemos, Spain’s growing leftwing party, which got nearly 21% of the votes in last year’s elections, doesn’t think that’s good, so it adopted an unusual marketing approach to tackle that problem: it printed the program as an Ikea catalogue (pdf, link in Spanish).
Miguel Hernández was a spanish shepherd, poet and playwright that dedicated most of his works to dignify the poor peasants of the rural areas of Spain.
In an effort to provide abused children with a safe way to reach out for help, a Spanish organization called the Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk Foundation, or ANAR for short, created an ad that displays a different message for adults and children at the same time.
This project was born a few days after a demonstrator lost an eye after being hit by a rubber bullet shot from police guns in Barcelona. Unfortunately, it was not the first time. "Cop d' ull" means a "a blow to the eye" and also "at a glance”, which is a perfect description of this project.
"Las sinsombrero" ("without hat") were a group of spanish women formed by the artists Maruja Mallo, Margarita Manso, Concha Méndez and the socialist activist Margarita Nelken.
La huelga general europea del #14N no sólo nos dejó un importante seguimiento y abrumadora movilización en España y otros PIG's, sino que también desplegó la habitual fuerza y originalidad creativa de la cual se vienen dotando las protestas en España desde el 15 de mayo.
Comusitària is a Community Cultural Development agency based in Barcelona run by Noemi Rubio and Laia Serra. They work in the production, management, research and dissemination of artistic projects that build social capital and enable citizens to live more active, critical and creative lives.
On Wednesday, December 15th 1976, a referendum was held in Spain. The question was to pass or not to pass the Ley para la Reforma Política (Political Reform Act). This Act was the legal instrument that allowed Spain to transition between Francisco Franco’s dictatorship to a democratic constitutional regime, a parliamentary monarchy.
Las Vulpes was the first spanish punk rock band formed only by women. It was founded in Baracaldo (Vizcaya, Basque Country) in the summer of 1982, as a result of the guitarist´s desire on creating an all women punk band. After a few changes, the final formation consisted on: Loles Vázquez (guitar), Mamen Rodrigo (voice), Begoña Astigarraga (bass) and Lupe Vázquez (drums), all between 17 and 22 years of age.