MANIFIESTO. 20 años con ADN Galeria

Manifiesto is a statement of position: a selection of works that use art as a tool for social transformation and as a critique of power, as well as in defence of freedom, memory and human rights. It is also the result of twenty years of collaboration between Eugenio Merino and ADN Galeria, a space in which these positions have been able to develop, take shape and be made public.

Manifiesto brings together a selection of works created by Eugenio Merino over twenty years of collaboration with ADN Galeria. Sculptures, installations, videos and objects explore the political and social conflicts that have run through his work: power, capital, corruption, ideology, historical memory and human rights violations.

Collaborative work forms part of his regular practice. He has collaborated with artists such as Pierre Valls, Santiago Sierra, INDECLINE, Miguel G. Morales and Avelino Sala, amongst others, and has taken part in projects with the international aid organisation Oxfam and the Tax Justice Network.

The collection can be understood as a manifesto against all forms of power. The works challenge the neoliberal economic and political model, characterised by inequality, the accumulation of wealth, the commodification of life and a growing concentration of economic, political and technological power. In this sense, the exhibition takes a stand against what Mark Fisher defined as ‘capitalist realism’: the feeling that ‘there is no alternative’. In the face of this idea, it asserts the possibility of challenging the status quo and transforming reality.

A significant part of the exhibition focuses specifically on Spain. Merino examines the country’s dictatorial past and the traces that still linger in the present, but also challenges certain narratives constructed around the Transition, as well as the persistence of power structures, inequalities and forms of corruption. Monumento a la corrupción (Monument to Corruption) transforms a revolving door into a symbol of this practice and its deep-rooted nature in Spain, with the Franco era identified as its peak. Paul Preston explores this historical context in his book A People Betrayed: A History of Corruption, Political Incompetence and Social Division in Modern Spain, published in 2019.

El dedo acusador (The accusing finger), r modelled on Nicolás Sánchez-Albornoz’s hand, revives the memory of the anti-Franco resistance. Monumento al cuerpo desaparecido (Monument to the disappeared body), dedicated to Federico García Lorca, ‘the world’s most famous disappeared person’, according to Ian Gibson, raises the impossibility of representing the bodies of the more than 114,000 people who were murdered and disappeared and who remain in mass graves.

The exhibition thus establishes a link between the past and the present. The dictatorship, political violence and corruption are not presented as closed chapters in history, but as elements that prompt us to question their influence on today’s democracy. The language of the monument —traditionally used by the hegemonic power to celebrate the victors— is appropriated by Merino to commemorate the victims of repression, highlight corrupt structures and challenge the monument’s commemorative function.

Human rights run through the entire project. Bolsa de basura (Rubbish bag) and Pisoteando derechos (Trampling on rights) highlight the gap between proclaimed rights and their actual violation. These works take on particular relevance in the face of the rise of far-right rhetoric that questions the universality of human rights, establishes hierarchies amongst people, and presents inequality, exclusion or violence as something legitimate or inevitable. Wars over resources and acts of genocide also feature in the pieces as extreme manifestations of this violation.

Merino addresses these issues through sculptures, videos, installations and objects that transform and challenge recognisable symbols. Banknotes, monuments, everyday objects and institutional elements take on new meanings to reveal the contradictions of the system. Humour also plays a part in this process: a riot police officer turned into a toy, a revolving door transformed into a monument, or a rubbish bag used as a medium to discuss human rights.

Manifiesto is a statement of position: a selection of works that uses art as a tool for social transformation and as a critique of power, as well as in defence of freedom, memory and human rights. It is also the result of twenty years of collaboration between Eugenio Merino and ADN Galeria, a space in which these positions have been able to develop, take shape and be made public.

Exhibition organised as part of the FLASH programme of Barcelona Gallery Weekend (BGW).

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