Plaza Mayor, análisis de un espacio (Plaza Mayor, Analysis of a Space)

Plaza Mayor, análisis de un espacio (Plaza Mayor, Analysis of a Space, 1970-1975) is the name of a project which lasted five years, manifesting its open and evolving character in different exhibitions, until it reached its most ambitious arrangement in the series "Nuevos Compartamientos Artísticos" (New Artistic Behaviour) that took place in the Goethe Institute of Madrid and Barcelona in 1974, an event considered one of the milestones of Spanish conceptualism. The work comprises diverse elements and materials – photographs, projections and photogravure – in which the project was rendered. In the copy of Documentos (Documents) integrated in the work, the methodology is explained using the mechanics of earlier works by this artist and graphic designer, who was strongly influenced by the semiotic and linguistic presence in international Conceptual Art, as well as by his simultaneous publishing activity. Corazón uses the capacity of mechanical reproduction as a political strategy in the mass dissemination of the message with socialising intentions. The result shows a use of images similar in meaning to those of mass media, but approached from a stance of critical necessity. The subject studied is the well-known Plaza Mayor of Madrid as its architectural, urban and symbolic aspects are analysed. The square is understood within the context of the city as a public space for the community and for events: a place of transit, casual encounters or public meetings, be it due to reasons responding to holidays, leisure, or politics, although this last use was traditionally suppressed by police action in the Franco regime. The aforementioned ideological and formal traits make this project one of the most representative of the spiritual climate that existed in Spain during the first half of the seventies.

Lola Hinojosa