b-inspired Exhibitions
Ajoblanco Libertario 1977
The magazine’s involvement with social movements of the time
The Fundació Suñol presents an exhibition that examines a key year within the cultural and political transition from dictatorship to democracy in Spain, curated by Pepe Ribas, Fernando Mir y Toni Puig at the Nivell Zero gallery. Within the context of the political upheaval of those years the publishers of Ajoblanco look back on the social movements of that period and reassess their legacy today.
After 39 years of Franco dictatorship the emerging generation wanted to break away from hierarchical authorities that had dictated life till then. Young people of the time simply decided to transform their day to day lives, establishing new lifestyles that had hitherto been unimaginable. Libertarian ideas united thousands of people around networks of groups and collectives that wanted change. Many of these groups were readers of Ajoblanco, the Barcelona publication that helped to promote and spread countercultural ideas and currents. With its participation in events such as the CNT rally on July 2 in Montjuïc and the International Liberation Days, which brought together half a million people, Ajoblanco documented and influenced a period of convulsion and great creative potential.
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Ajoblanco, front covver from #22 (May 1977), digital archive belonging to the magazine. ©Archivo Ajoblanco
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Ajoblanco, front cover #23 (June 1977), digital archive belonging to the magazine. ©Archivo Ajoblanco
Ajoblanco Libertario 1977 allows us to explore the historical events of that year and their reflection in the magazine. All the 1977 editions of Ajoblanco magazine can be read at the Fundació Suñol Nivell Zero exhibition, which also examines photographs and other materials that made up the various contributions to Ajoblanco and their meaning. Also included are excerpts from the documentary El tiempo de las cerezas. 1977-79, liberation hatching (Juan Felipe, 2015), including eye-witness accounts investigating the outstanding events of the late 70’s in relation to the organization of leftist ideas and the libertarian movement.
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Ajoblanco, front cover #24 (July/Agust 1977), digital archive belonging to the. ©Archivo Ajoblanco
The exhibition as a whole takes a unique look at the magazine from the perspective of its own architects, who have selected original documents for the occasion and have highlighted the most representative subjects from those editions of Ajoblanco from the year in question. In this way they have created a route through their thinking process, that includes different forms of libertarian culture, communes, ecology, naturism, education, feminism, sexual liberties and anti-psychiatry, travel, drugs and free radios, as well as the politics contained within the sections "Cloaca" and "Minipimer", that were open for readers’ participation and constitute a reliable document of the ordinary people’s thinking at that time. This myriad of revolutionary content, both playful and nonconformist which was brought together in its pages during that year provides an insightful summary of the full impact this publication had over its lifetime.
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January 1977. Fernando Mir, Toni Puig and Pepe Ribas of the Ajoblanco copy. © Pepe Domènech Graells - Archivo Ajoblanco
- From 31 March to 06 May
- Fundació Suñol Nivell Zero
- Rosselló, 240 08008
- www.fundaciosunol.org
- Fundació Suñol
- Nivell Zero
- Rosselló, 240
- 08008 Barcelona
- T. 93 496 10 32
- www.fundaciosunol.org
- free entry