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vercoming Al ienat ion / New Tendencies 19611973 261

The Furor of the Festival / Los Encuentrosde Pamplona (1972)

Jos Daz Cuys

os ncuentros de amlona, or amlona Meetng, n 1972,

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avantgarde festval of an held n an after the cvl war.

n the form of the work of 50 artsts, t brought together, n

a countr stll under the swa of a mltar dctatorsh, the

latest trends of the natonal and nternatonal avantgarde. nartcular, t ncluded those trends that n the latter half of the

190s chose to blur the boundares between meda, whch tend

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tval of anfermnes, from une 2 to ul , the ublc sace

of amlona, then a rovncal town, was lterall occued b

a full rogram of events and artstc nterventons ntended to

celebrate the most radcal trends of art that challenged ts ver

lmts and argued wth an conoclastc vehemence to dssolve

the boundares between art and lfe. The atrarchal resence of

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ous decade, whose srt, the catalogue tells us, s so resent

n man of the manfestatons of these ncuentros, came to be

seen as the smbol of that general roenst towards the act or

event, towards the ehemeral, transtor oetcs of art seen as

mere haenng.

eld n the earl summer of 1972, the ncuentros marked

the begnnng of a cultural artstc tour that added the ca

tal of avarre to the route that ncluded the oleto estval,

ocumenta 5 n assel and the ence Bennale. t

laed a major role from the outset, as was onl to be eected

n a countr where cultural toursm and the lesure ndustr

were determnant factors n both the economc develoment

olc of the revous decade and the correlatve henomenon

of oltcal oenngu.1 ather than a dstnctve local feature,

however, t was an element of nternatonal normalzaton ata tme when, thanks to the develoment of communcatons,

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artstc debate.2 Ths globalzaton of the art scene concded,

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acterzed b the mamum radcalzaton of ts ostulatesdue

1 Tourism was our

Marshall lan [] the great

support that the Spanish

economy received from

developed countries []

the most evident super

factor in the development

of the Spanish economy.

nterview with Manuel

raga ribarne, Minister of

nformation and Tourism

from 1962 to 1969,

conducted in Santiago

de Compostela on May

15, 2000, cited in Esther

M. Snchez Snchez,

Turismo, desarrollo e

integracin internacional

de la Espaa franquista,

EBA Annual Conference,

Barcelona, eptember

1618, 2004, p. 1.

The press of the time

reported its value for tour-

ism: see os Encuentros

72 de amplona, iario

de Navarra, April 29,

1972, or ouis andrels

chronicle fore Monde

on uly 9, 1972, in which

he wrote: ast week, the

capital of Navarre left

behind its traditions andwelcomed its tourists with

strange manifestations:

the Encuentros. or an

introduction to action arts

and Spanish experimental

art in regard to tourism,

see my articles opular

el paraso: la AA en El

Cabrito,esacuerdos 5,

2009, p. 115128, http://

www.macba.cat/s/

desacuerdos5_jose_

cuyas_cas.pdf, and a

rarefacta fragancia del arte

experimental espaol,

e la revuelta a la pos-

modernidad (19621982).

MNCAS, Madr id 2011,

p. 127141.

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Case studies: Neglected istor ies and orgotten ract ices / B. Moments

to the objecton to an lmt, to the etent of totall negatng

art and cultureand ts mmedate deleton and consequent

dsemowerment.

hat rncall set t aart from other smlar events were

the eculartes of ts organzatonal structure, and the mor

tance of the dalogue between art and musc, and between the

avantgarde and oular tradton. n terms of fundng, t was

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Aleanco. The eculartes of ts gestaton, n that hstorc con

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under the dctatorsh, onl rvate ntatves could undertake

an event of ths knd; and secondl, t was recsel ths dsnWHUHVWHGRSHQKDQGHGQDQFLQJWKDWPDUNHGLWRXWDVDSXEOLF

servce, as a gft to the ct that eloted the ublcnature of

these tendences, offered to the cteole as an nstructve,

free, festve event. The fact that t was a rvate ntatve also

gave the team of drectors the freedom to make ther decsons

wthout the medaton of what the referred to rather contem

tuousl as cultural ntermedares, turnng ther back roudl

on the market and the art nsttuton.

4

Alongsde foregn avantgarde movements and nteractng

wth them, ths was, then, a stage for the most eermental

and therefore most mnort trends of ansh art. t showcased

the latest manfestatons of vsual, sound and acton oetr,

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roposals, experimentalartistic practices and

installations in the

neumatic omes. os

Encuentros de amplona,

1972, photo by o

uerendiin. Courtesy of

the Museo Nacional Centro

de Arte eina Sofa

2 The Encuentros were

marked by particular

attention to media projec-tion, and their impact was

considerable in both the

national and the interna-

tional media. The press

RIFHZDVFRRUGLQDWHG

by uan Manuel Bonet

and Carlos Alcolea, and

relations with the foreign

press were conducted

by osephine Markovitz.

Although the N, the

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nored the Encuentros, two

special chapters about the

event made by the alera

television program have

recently been recovered.

The mediatic and touristic

aspects of the event, which

informed its entire nature,

are indicative of a new

age in festivals and art

biennales.

3 Everything was free.

Everywhere, people were

rushing around, open,

enthusiastic, spontaneous;

students, of course, but

then in the evenings there

were lots of workers. or

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The uror of the est ival / os Encuentros de amplona (1972) 263

ulen Blane, eanranos Bor, Augusto de Camos, ugen

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ree, ermno Molero, au Bertran, etc. and ublc oetr b

aos own grou, Alan Aras Msson and Carlos nzburg,

as well as l reenhams honetc oetr erformances .

t offered concetual art and what was referred to as ro

osals, creatons and lastc montages, wth works b Art

anguage, Chrstan Boltansk, ctor Burgn, Chrsto, alter

e Mara, Al ansen, oseh osuth, Carl Andre, Artst

lacement rou, obert mthson, Ben auter, awrence

ener, etc., wth the resence of Bernar enet, eandro atz

and udwk laszen, a close collaborator of erz rotowsk

at the aborator Theatre, tets b Catherne Mllet and u'HERUGWKHH[KLELWLRQRI6\VWHPV$UWRZDUGVD3UROHRI

atn Amercan Art, b the CAC n Buenos Ares, the crea

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&UyQLFD-RVpLJXHOGH3UDGD3RROH$OEHUWR&RUD]yQ3D]

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l ruo de raca, Anton Muntadas and rancesc Torres.There was vdeo art as well, marked b the attendance of

enns enhem and the ccle Ths s our oof, secal

l roduced for amlona b lloughb har wth works,

among others, b to Acconc, Mel Bochner, anc olt and

ordon MattaClark; comuter, lastc and muscal art, wth

ublic poem by mez de

iao, os Encuentros de

amplona, 1972. Courtesy of

Muntadas

truly popular public. ack

ousseland, Entre la

fte et la crise: un succs

inattendu,Combat: e jour-

nal de aris, uly, 1972.

4 The uartes were

Navarrese builders who

had connections with the

regime, but they also fea-

tured strongly in the most

ambitious and systematic

project of modernization

and cultural patronage

under rancoism. As uis

de ablo recalls, after

the death of lix uarte

oi, ice resident of the

iputacin oral regional

council from 1963 until his

death in 1971, his eldest

son ess uarte wanted

to give the city a gift:

e wanted amplona to

receive a very big gift.

nterview with uis de

ablo, ebruary 23, 2004.

ith the exception of major

funding for infrastructures

and the contribution of

engineers on the part of

amplona Council, rupouarte must have met all

the expenses, managed

production and applied for

administrative permits, as

well as undertaking respon-

sibility for public order and

security.

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DODUJHVKRZFRRUGLQDWHGE\DULR)HUQiQGH]%DUEHUiLQDV

socaton wth the Comuter Centre of Madrd nverst wth

artsts such as Manuel Barbadllo, anns enaks, oledad

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Cultures, ncludng concerts b etnamese Trn van h,

athakal dance drama from erala, Basque txalaparta musc

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WKHRUyQJ\SV\JURXSDQGWKHUDQLDQWULRRI+RVVHLQDOHN

Ths short lst serves as an outlne of the ambton and scoe

of the festval and how reresentatve t was of the most actve

trends of the tme. n an ntervew gven n ovember 2009,

enns enhem remembered these ncuentros as one of the

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artsts who ractced a new knd of art: have to sa, he

FRPPHQWHGLQUHODWLRQWRWKHGLIFXOWUHFHSWLRQRIWKHQDOavantgarde manfestatons, that the eole ddnt understand

a great deal of what we were dong at the tme; onl the artsts

themselves reall understood that work. A state of uncertant

whch also made t esecall ectng for hm, and whch n the

case of amlona contrbuted to the curost and ectement

wth whch he receved hs nvtaton: ou can magne the

artsts, we were all relatvel oung, beng n an nternatonal

ehbton, n a countr that had a comletel dfferent oltcal

clmate to our own and beng consdered mortant.5 These

declaratons are qute ndcatve of the contradctons and con

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domnate ths festval, held n a oltcal clmate that was, n

tself, ecetonal and untmel.

t would seem that ths art, whch onl the artsts them

selves reall understood, was characterzed b the general

desre to show realt qute lterall: b the conoclastc rejec

WLRQRIDQ\JXUDWLYHRUPHWDSKRULFDOFRQFHSWLRQRIWKHWUXWKDQGWKHGHVLUHQHYHUVDWLVHGWRpresentrealt, to nvoke

t n the here and now. hat s both fascnatng and terrble

about that artstc stuaton could then be summed u as the

meetngor the collsonof the assonatel snatched art

of the realwth ansh socal reality at ts most crtcal mo

ment. ence the multle outbursts that took lace among the

scheduled artstc roosals and the other events, festve or

volent: two bombs and the manfestos aganst the festval bTA; the semclandestne meetngs and the ress releases b a

sector of artsts n the orbt of the C the ansh Communst

art, the rncal underground oltcal organzaton, was

oosed to the festval snce, accordng to ts vewont at

the tme, t offered other countres a dstorted mage of the

6 See iteralismo y

carnavalizacin en la ltima

vanguardia, os az

Cuys (ed.), Encuentros

de amplona 1972: Fin de

HVWDGHODUWHH[SHULPHQWDO,

MNCAS, Madrid 2010.

5 http://www.museorei-

QDVRDHVDUFKLYRYLG-

eos/2009/encuentros-pam-

plona/dennis-oppenheim.

html

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7 n early 1971, the

Executive Committee of

the CE had issued what

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declaration: After the

Burgos Trial, the dictator-

ship of eneral ranco

is potentially at an end.

regorio Morn: Miseria

y grandeza del artido

Comunista de Espaa

19391985, laneta,

Barcelona 1986, p. 463.

countr; the varous confrontatons between the Basque artsts

that marked the end of the roject that was the Basque chool;

the threats and amhlets of etreme rghtwng grous; the

constant rumors of a shutdown and the ongong olce resence

encouraged b a regme that regarded ths ublc manfestaton

wth suscon; the antfestval stances of the Basque Church

and a sector of Catalan artsts organzed around ere ortabella

DQG$QWRQLSLHVDQGQDOO\WKHYDQGDOLVPDQGWKHVSRQWDQH

ous outbursts of collectve jublaton among much of the ublc.

Man thngs, seemngl dsarate, were haenng at once,

though all motvated b that artstc event.The dsfunctonalt between oltcs and socet n the

an of the tme had reached an almost unsustanable level of

tenson. After the tragc travest of the Burgos Tral, held the

revous ear, the regme had started to show evdent sgns of

weakness, though t was another three long, hard ears before

the dctators ntermnable televsed death.7 The general erce

ton was that ths was the end of an era, run through n equal

measure b hoe and uncertant, most of all for a new genera

ton that had grown u wth develoment olces and been

sustaned b the trends of the new left and the counterculture

of the late 190s. There was a new but stll recarous crtcal

PDVVWKDWLGHQWLHGZLWKQHLWKHUWKHRYHUEORZQUKHWRULFRIWKH

regme nor the strct dogmatc stle of the old culture of resst

ance offered b the fellow travelers of the C. Accordngl,

calls for ublc acton that artook of artlfe trends, wth ther

formal dsobedence and ther mlct content of bodl and

deologcal lberaton found the ultmate soundng board n3DPSORQD$QLQGLYLGXDODUWLVWLFSURSRVDOFRXOGQGLWVHOIRYHU

come, contamnated or dsgused, and at the ncuentros there

were man eamles, on the sde oflife. Ths was the case,

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most elct carnvalesque substance featured n amlona. ts

fabrcs were decarnvalzed and turned nto festve or rotest

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mtated the secret olce and were dstrbuted among theaudence at the concert gven b errar and Breton, endng n

the glorous orgastc rtual8 of beng tossed and destroed,

and whch, n a comc twst, were saved from the mob thanks to

the rotecton of the ver olce force the aroded. The same

was true of the enthusasm wth whch the audence danced

8 ernando uici & avieruiz, a comedia del arte,

Editora Nacional, Madrid

1974, p. 160.

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to and cheered teve echs severe, mental mnmalst ece,

Drumming.9 And also of the sarcastc msunderstandng of the

artstc ackets mtatng bombs that us Muro lanned to

SODFHLQWKHVWUHHWVDQGWKDWKDGWREHUHPRYHGDIWHU($VUVW

bomb, real n ths case, went off at the monument to eneral

anjurjo.

Amd the anet and uncertant n the streets and at the

varous events, a contagous vandalstc jo regned. ue to the

wa the ublc henomenon took over that rogram ofpublic

works, the outcome was more lke a bosterous, elosve carn

val masquerade. ke a furous game of collectve dressngun whch an gesture, an thng, be t of an artstc or a olt

cal nature, could nvert ts meanng and end u out of lace.

ke a multtudnous masquerade n whch art, so eager forlife,

found tself, n a countr alread mmersed n a grotesque real

t, outdone b the contradctons and mulses of thatlife to

whch t so deseratel asred.

Translated from the ansh b lane radle.

9 ears later, Steve

eich himself told me thatno public had danced to

his music like the public in

amplona. loren Barber:

Msica espaola de los

aos setenta, Mariano

Navarro (ed.), os setenta:

na dcada multicolor,

undacin Marcelino Botn,

Santander 2001, p. 197.

cuyas

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