Curated by Paula Pinto, Alexandra Areias, Joaquim Moreno and Vera Carmo, Zapping: Television as Culture and Counterculture proposes a critical reading of television as a socio-technical, cultural and political phenomenon. The project brings together the history of RTP’s cultural programming with works by artists who, since the 1950s, have worked with, about or for the television medium, exploring it both as a vehicle of culture and of counterculture.
At gnration, the exhibition focuses on the work of Antoni Muntadas, a key figure in contemporary art in the field of critical media analysis. For more than half a century, the artist has investigated the mechanisms of production, circulation and control of information, with a particular emphasis on television as a device of power and narrative construction.
With free admission, the Braga exhibition brings together Confrontations T.V. (1974), on view in Gallery One at gnration, and La Televisión (1980) and TVE: Primer Intento (1989), presented in Gallery Zero of the same venue.
Created during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, Confrontations T.V. stems from a series of actions carried out by the Catalan artist, including the observation of everyday life in various streets of New York, the confrontation of television broadcasts from different parts of the globe, and the analysis of the front pages of daily newspapers from several countries worldwide. Through this installation, the artist juxtaposes different types of information—experienced and disseminated via television, the streets and newspapers—and encountered through multiple formats.
Created in 1989, La Televisión already anticipates the technological death of television and offers a commentary on the passivity of viewers. Inert and passive, a switched-off television set sits on a shelf in an anonymous café, while it is invaded and animated by slide projections featuring news images and advertising drawn from the press.
TVE: Primer Intento (1989) originated from an invitation extended to Antoni Muntadas by Metrópolis, TVE’s art and culture programme. The producers ultimately accepted the artist’s counterproposal: to produce a work about TVE itself. The resulting piece is a critique of the mechanisms television employs to manipulate, limit and restrict information. It was censored and never broadcast on Spanish television. Over a two-year period, Muntadas documented the state of neglect and total disorder of the public broadcaster’s archives, recovering images from programmes in Spain’s recent history. Only in 2012, in a programme dedicated to the work of the Catalan artist, were some excerpts from this work finally aired on Spanish television.
The exhibition Zapping: Television as Culture and Counterculture is accompanied by a series of Live Interruptions, a cycle of four talks and commented screenings based on historical RTP programmes. Each session offers a critical reflection on how television represents and shapes different areas of cultural and social life, including music, architecture and education. The talks are free of charge and take place on 17 January, 21 February, 28 February and 21 March.