"On July 5, 2002, a strange new brand began cropping up in the streets of Barcelona. That day, at the height of sales season, more than fifty people rushed through the center of Barcelona to the Bershka clothing store to perform the very first Yomango fashion show.
A Centro Social Okupado Autogestionado (Self-Managed Occupied Social Center) or CSOA is an occupied building dedicated to the development of social and cultural activities. They are part of the “movimiento okupa” (“squatter movement”), a label created and circulated by the mainstream press.
On a damp and rainy Sunday in October of 1935, Munro Leaf sat down to write a story. He had been eager to work with his friend – the illustrator Robert Lawson – for some time and so he decided to pen a book which he felt might suit the illustrator’s skills. Lawson was a master at drawing animals but horses, dogs, cats, rabbits and mice had all been done a thousand times already.
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 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.
Even though Spain is constitutionally defined as a non-confessional nation, the Catholic Church still holds great power. For example, the Catholic Church is exempt from paying certain taxes, and can reclaim certain buildings as their property. This often creates frictions and conflicts with the activist groups and organizations that would prefer a more secular political environment.
La Casa Invisible project was started in 2007 in Malaga, Spain, when a group of socially involved participants squatted in a run-down building, aiming to eventually claim the legal rights to the property (Moor & Smart, 2016). The space was opened to local artists and creators, quickly becoming a hub for free local music, performances, and seminars as well as creating an important meeting space for social groups (Moor & Smart, 2016).
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.
Spain’s most devastating environmental disaster took place 20 years ago, on the evening of November 13th, 2002. The Prestige oil spill occurred off the coast of Galicia, part of northern Spain. The spilled oil, in time, covered around 2,000 kilometers of the Galician coast.
A television report written, directed and produced by Enmedio members Leónidas Martín and Xavier Artigas. Collective projects that see art as a kind of social relationship. Artistic interventions that target consumption, media guerrilla tactics, creative mobilisations and protest, critical projects brimming with humour and disobedience, new narratives capable of changing the existing symbols and codes.
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.
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).
El movimiento 15M ha abierto la veda a una protesta insistente, que mantiene la presencia en la calle. Según la delegada de gobierno, Cristina Cifuentes, en Madrid hay ocho manifestaciones diarias.
David Wojnarowicz was born on September 14, 1954, and died on July 22, 1992, at the age of 37 due to AIDS-related complications. Before he became an artist, he attended a Performing Arts high school from which he dropped out of in order to make a living as a farmer in Canada. This was up until he made a name for himself as an artist in New York’s cultural scene.
Spanish street artist El Rey de la Ruina uses murals and installations to critique inequality and government policies. His works, especially during the pandemic, voiced concerns over healthcare, housing, and public resources in Madrid’s urban spaces.
El albañil anarquista Lucio Urtubia falsificó miles de cheques del First National City Bank, en la segunda mitad de los años setenta, hasta prácticamente llevar el banco a la ruina. Urtubia donó el dinero así generado a diversos movimientos de guerrilla europeos y latinoamericanos.
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.
On November 7, 2010 Pope Benedict XVI visited our city. He would have been better off staying at home. Even before he touched land we had rendered him impotent for life. Yes: im-po-tent.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Spain is known for its beautiful scenic views, rich history, and rich culture. When we focus on Spain it mainly for the things that attract tourism. Often when living in paradise you forget the shadows that hold secrets are not far behind. I have uncovered a deep dark truth that hides within the cities - Sexual violence and the brutal inequality that women face in Spain.