Thèse - Université de Paris. / Bibliography: p. [21]-74 (1st group).

Thèse - Université de Paris. / Bibliography: p. [21]-74 (1st group).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [349]-363).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [193]-203).

This paper will look back on the work of Equipo Cronica, who worked between 1964--1980, to reveal a production of art that centered on issues of originality and value that were grounded in attempts at social activism and a redefinition of the role of art vis-a-vis society. To achieve their goals, I will argue and describe how the two man team of artists used serialism, objectivity, hybridity, appropriation of mass media iconography and techniques, and parody to produce something that was neither an art object nor an ordinary object, but an object of criticism. The historical relevancy of such an art lies in its claims of participating in a political critique of the culture industry controlled by the oppressive Franco regime, and its wary outlook on the rapid modernization of Spain into the neo-capitalist state it is today within the multinational world order. / The relevance of such an examination lies in how their intentions to create a new relationship between art and society is still pertinent today in modern Spain. Since the death of Franco in 1975 there has been a feeling in Spain that the eyes of the world have been on its new democracy, leading to a campaign, led until recently by the Socialist government, to prove Spain is a modern state that has recuperated from 40 years of isolation. It has tried to demonstrate that it is progressive, not only economically and technologically, but culturally. Over the last twenty years a veritable culture industry has boomed in Spain which has been generously backed by its federal and regional governments. As Spain zealously and rapidly finds its place in the globalized multinational world order, I will demonstrate that the issues of identity pertinent to Equipo Cronica, and the tactics they used to address it, can still contribute a critical position to present-day discussions.

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This dissertation is a study of artistic projects that, in response to Spain’s transition into a neoliberal economy, renew the disruptive gesture of the avant-garde, from the country’s 1986 entry into the European Union, to the post-15M uprisings. To do so, I argue that Iberian artists revived strategies of sabotage typical of the 19th-century worker’s struggle, including power cuts, political infiltration, misappropriation of funds, and the destruction of property, to wield the art world’s contradictions against itself. Institutions sponsored these interventions precisely because in attempting to sabotage the art system, museums were able to marshal the idea of the artist’s freedom as a stand-in for Spain’s democratic identity, while also promoting art that fit the regime of spectacle driving the art market. Combining archival research and interviews with visual and cultural analyses of primarily conceptual art projects, each chapter focuses on a sociopolitical concern with Spain’s neoliberalization with which these artworks wrestle. The first chapter centers on imaginaries of technology given the country’s EU-imposed deindustrialization. One of the cases I examine is Catalan sound artist TRES Blackout (2000-16) concerts where he disconnected buildings from the grid, aestheticizing a pre- and post-industrial experience. The second chapter considers how the promotion of contemporary art was crucial for the State’s shift toward financialization, helping tourism and real estate markets’ development. These conditions, I argue, led to a new wave of institutional critique, questioning the museum’s social role. Among the works I analyze is Andalusian-Catalan visual artist Luz Broto’s architectural piece, Abrir un agujero permanente (2015), in which she bored a hole in the façade of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona and ran a workshop to change the museum’s bylaws for the hole to remain, without authorization, rendering institution making an artistic process in the vein of institutional critique. The third chapter addresses how artists found ways to counter the institution’s capture of cultural labor, such as Núria Güell’s manual, Cómo expropiar a los bancos (2013) —alongside others—on how to obtain bank loans and default on them. Through the lens of sabotage, we can see how artists pry open, in both symbolic and concrete ways, the increasingly nebulous relationship between labor and capital.

This dissertation examines the cult of Our Lady of Remedios, one of the oldest Marian images in Mexico and declared the first patroness of the viceregal capital of New Spain in 1574. Despite Mexico City’s city council’s (cabildo) promotion of this Madonna as a relic of the conquest and the patroness of the City of Mexico, historians have not investigated the cult of Remedios extensively since the study of devotional practices in colonial Mexico has primarily focused on the Virgin of Guadalupe. As such, academics have underestimated the importance of Our Lady of Los Remedios, leading them to view her cult as unimportant to Novohispanic society. As this dissertation demonstrates, the cult of Our Lady of Los Remedios was not just prominent in the City of Mexico, but a frequent invocation in times of great misfortune. She was believed to remedythe ills of her devotees and the catastrophes that afflicted the metropolis, such as floods, droughts, and epidemics. As important as the sacred image of Our Lady of Los Remedios is to the history that I present, the core of this dissertation is the Confraternity of Los Remedios. My work examines the political and religious interests that Mexico City’s cabildo had in establishing and sponsoring the brotherhood and the role they played in supporting the cult image of Our Lady of Los Remedios. Additionally, due to the increasing religious devotion to Our Lady of Los Remedios, the Confraternity of Los Remedios received financial support from the generous offerings given to the revered statue. This outcome was financial independence, causing the Confraternity of Los Remedios to function as lenders, administrators of wills, and maintainers of records for different financial dealings. For this reason, I argue that the confraternity ceased to be an organization solelydedicated to religious purposes and instead became an institution of social and economic importance for the City of Mexico.