Grup de Treball (1973 - 1975), una urgència col·lectiva? (a collective urgency)

"About twenty Catalan intellectuals and artists from heterogeneous sources (university professors, artists, filmmakers, musicians, designers, etc.) along three years -the last years of the Franco dictatorship- worked together in the field of visual arts. Under the currency Grup de Treball  (Simón Marchán, Antoni Mercader, Carlos Santos, Francisco Abad, Dorothée Selz and Jordi Benito), they presented themselves in the context of contemporary art as a collective author, ready for action, open to the controversy, for texts and statements. They opened debates, accepted complicity and consensus. Produced breakings. Often put political and social intervention to individual praxis, always in line with the marginalization and integration into the system" (Antoni Mercader).  

This Antoni Mercader lecture runs within the framework of the activities related to the exhibition "Reproductibilitat 2.0. Col·lecció MACBA". This artist will reflect on the types of creation, production and distribution carried out by Grup de Treball, a collective of artists who responded to the artistic expression of the 70s in Spain.

Antoni Mercader (Banyoles, Spain, 1941)  

Historian of art and media in addition to forms of audiovisual and multimedia expansion. Exhibition curator. Audiovisual and multimedia producer. Doctor in Audiovisual Communication at the University Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, 2000). Degree in Philosophy and History of Art (1976). Former professor of Communication Studies at the University of Barcelona. Director of the European project Vivid [Radical] Memory, Programme Cultura 2000 (2006-2007); co-coordinator of the GAMA European project, e-content plus programme (2007-2009); Member of the Research Group (consolidated) LMI (Interactive Media Laboratory, 2009 SGR 847).    1982-1983 artistic director (video section) in the San Sebastian Film Festival. Co-author of the first book published in Spain En torno al video (Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 1980). He curated and coordinated between 1978 and 2005 eleven exhibitions on video art and experimental audiovisual and multimedia. 1995 "Espacios Girona" Award (for texts on contemporary art). Member of the artistic collective Grup de Treball (1973-1976) whose works are in the MACBA and MNCARS museums. Invited to the biennales of Paris (1975) and Venice (1976).