Liberxina. Pop and New Artistic Behaviour, 1966-1971

For many years, the MNAC has been dedicated to investigating and disseminating the work of post-war and Catalan avant-garde artists. In other words, everything that happened from Dau al Set (the first post–World War II artistic movement in Catalonia) and over four decades, until the 1980s – a period that has traditionally been ignored, as if, during the years of Francoism, nothing even happened here. As a result, it seems like an entire generation has been left in limbo.

The exhibition ‘Liberxina’, which takes its title from a censored film by Carlos Duran from the ’60s, about a gas with the same name that, once released into the environment, incites the revolution, aims to dignify the art created during the post-war period. Because half a century ago, in the middle of a dictatorship, some artists expressed themselves though pop art, Neo-figuration and psychedelia, having been influenced by international tendencies toward political and cultural freedom and breakdowns. Practices were fused with design, comics and experimental cinema, to address issues such as feminism, anti-capitalism, and opposition to the regime.

‘Liberxina’ the exhibition rediscovers singular figures like Mari Chordà, Aurelia Muñoz, Jordi Galí, among other, shall we say, more classic artists, the likes of Antoni Miralda, Zush / Evru and Carles Santos. Likewise, never-before-exhibited and lesser-known pieces will be on display, some of which will then become part of the museum's permanent collection. This is certainly revolutionary.