Inspired by New York’s new wave and Britain’s punk scenes, an energetic youth movement arose as the country’s dictatorship fell via Dazed
Broad social change is often a slow-burning process. But when Spain’s dictator Francisco Franco died in 1975, it seemed to happen overnight. While laws and institutions did evolve gradually as the country turned democratic, people’s new-found freedom translated into a burst of pent-up creative energy. Or as pop-rock band Radio Futura sang: “The future is already here.”
“The movement was about youth, about a search for identity and also the idea of opening up to the world,” says Irene de Mendoza, who curatedan exhibition celebrating four Spanish image-makers of the time at this year’s Arles photography festival.
Through Trillo’s lens, however, photographs were “traces of joy,” essential historical documents as well as cherished memories for those pictured. Following the movement’s DIY spirit, the artist used Spain’s first available colour copier to print images, stick them up on walls and hand them out to friends. Along with shared musical taste, distributing zines, photos, and other visuals amongst Madrid’s youth created a sense of community that had been lost or simply not allowed during the regime.
Perhaps the two other photographers on show, Alberto García-Alix and Pablo Pérez-Mínguez – who signed his work as “pobre pero mítico” – best exemplify the culture of excess that marked the movement. There was too much make-up, too much hairspray, too much partying. And also too many drugs. Many artists lost their lives to heroin and Aids, including pioneering bisexual poet and essayist Eduardo Haro Ibars .
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