Contracultura Exhibition at IVAM Explores Valencia's Post-Franco Counterculture
The IVAM in Valencia presents 'Contracultura: Utopia, resistència i provocació a València', running from February 13 to May 17, 2020. The exhibition documents the rapid cultural liberation following Franco's death, focusing on Valencia's local yet radical counterculture. It features posters, fanzines, and artworks that engage with the region's traditional Fallas festival while challenging Catalan nationalism. The show highlights Valencia's unique blend of punk, feminism, sexual revolution, and underground cinema, exemplified by figures like Lluís Fernàndez, author of the gay novel 'El anarquista desnudo', and the cabaret star Nastasia Rampova. A parallel exhibition, 'De vacances al jardí de les Hespèrides', examines tourist imagery under Franco. The curatorial approach contrasts with the Paris-centric 'L'Esprit français' exhibition, arguing that emancipation and transgression flourished in peripheral regions like Valencia.
Key facts
- Exhibition 'Contracultura: Utopia, resistència i provocació a València' at IVAM, Valencia, from February 13 to May 17, 2020.
- Curated by Laurent Perez, the exhibition explores post-Franco counterculture in Valencia.
- Includes materials like posters, fanzines, and artworks from the 1970s and 1980s.
- Highlights the gay novel 'El anarquista desnudo' by Lluís Fernàndez, published in Valencian.
- Features the cabaret Ploma-2 and its star Nastasia Rampova.
- Parallel exhibition 'De vacances al jardí de les Hespèrides' runs from February 20 to May 10, 2020.
- References the 2017 Paris exhibition 'L'Esprit français' at La Maison rouge.
- Exhibition argues that transgression was not limited to metropolitan centers.
- Includes film excerpt from 'Que nos quiten lo bailao' (1983) by Carles Mira.
- Group Orgasmo Atómico graffitied provocative slogans in public toilets in early 1976.
Entities
Artists
- Laurent Perez
- Lluís Fernàndez
- Nastasia Rampova
- Joan Monleón
- Carles Mira
- Rafa Gassent
- Juan Gómez
- Pedro Almodóvar
- Guillaume Désanges
- François Piron
- Denise Laroutis
Institutions
- IVAM (Institut Valencià d'Art Modern)
- La Maison rouge
- Christian Bourgois
- Éditions de la Découverte
- Opus Dei
- Paris Match
- Cartelera Turia
Locations
- Valencia
- Spain
- Paris
- France
- Cologne
- Germany
- Madrid
Sources
- artpress —