Mark Stuart-Smith 'Juan Muñoz: artist of the Spanish Transition'

Talk details:

The Spanish sculptor Juan Muñoz (1953-2001), best known in the UK for his vast but understated Double Bind (Tate Modern 2001), left Spain in 1970, aged 17, and only returned to live there again in 1982, nearly seven years after General Franco’s death. He therefore largely missed the most intense period of Spain’s transition to democracy. Nevertheless, his art and his career as a whole mirror the transition in revealing ways. This talk will discuss Muñoz’s brilliant adaptation to the new culture of spectacle in Spain in the 1980s and 1990s, and explore some of the ways in which his work reanimates collective memories of Spain’s recent traumatic past. Mark will also present his forthcoming book Juan Muñoz: The Politics of Silence (Peter Lang, due out March 2024).

Book launch: Instituto Cervantes, London, 29.4.24

Book details: Juan Muñoz: The Politics of Silence, Peter Lang, March 2024 hhttps://www.peterlang.com/document/1351133

Seminar attendees can enter the discount code to purchase the book: MUNOZ30, valid from 28 Feb–13 March 2024.

Book description: 

The spectacular international success of the Spanish sculptor Juan Muñoz has encouraged a critical framing of his work within narratives of global postmodernist innovation. Juan Muñoz: The Politics of Silence, the first in-depth study of the central idea of silence in Muñoz’s work, aims to position the artist more clearly within his historical context, by reading his work against the silences of Spanish politics and culture in post-Civil War Spain.

Drawing on a wealth of documents, beginning with Muñoz’s student notebooks, the book shows how silence and memory defined and shaped his art. A range of methodologies from within Muñoz’s own intellectual horizon is used to explore a progression from the implied silences of his sculptural installations to the literal sounds and silences of his first radio piece. Muñoz’s silencing strategies are analysed across an array of different mediums, both visual and verbal, to show how his art probes at and reanimates the uncanny memory of Spain’s traumatic past.

The event is part of the Research Seminar Series organised by Durham University's Zurbarán Centre with the ARTES Iberian and Latin American Visual Culture Group in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes and the Embassy of Spain in London.

The series provides an open forum for engaging with innovative research and exhibition projects relating to the visual arts in the Hispanic world.

The sessions usually take place on Wednesdays, 6.00-7.00 pm (UK time). 

https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/j/96119629810?pwd=b0dwMU5pUk9raEppdDgwVkp6NHIrQT09

Meeting ID: 961 1962 9810
Passcode: 183610