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A tour of the work of Muntadas, the nomadic artist

From his early video works and performances of the 1970s to his most recent pieces, in which he creates complex installations that question citizen control. We offer a selection of his work, centered around the cities where he has presented his work.

Unverified translation
'Look See Perceive', an installation by Antoni Muntadas
'Look See Perceive', an installation by Antoni Muntadas Foto: Román Lores Riesgo i Joaquín Cortés
Sunday
Catalina Serraand Antoni Ribas Tur
Upd. 28
21 images
Antoni Muntadas: "We have to learn something from everything we do."
Antoni Muntadas: "We must learn something from everything we do."

Looking is one thing, seeing is another, and perceiving is another. These are three stages that determine how we interpret what is before us. Antoni Muntadas (Barcelona, ​​1942) always encourages the public to reach the third stage because this perception, which leads to the discovery of something new that was not apparently visible, is what allows us to enjoy knowledge and action, what gives us tools to interpret the world around us, and what also opens up new paths of creativity and knowledge. That's why we wanted to begin this supplement with two images that reflect the artist's desire to "make the invisible visible." On the left, the "Look, see, perceive"; above, the "Attention, perception requires involvement", a phrase he began using in 1999 on all kinds of media - stickers, posters, postcards, signs, billboards... - and which he has presented to dozens of cities around the world with their corresponding translation. Which is not always easy. In fact, it is a work that is part of the On Translation series, started in 1995: to translate, to interpret, in short, to understand each other, even beyond languages and cultures. And, for that very reason, the phrase is above all a call to the viewer to get involved, to make an effort to understand and participate. Just as to understand a physics or biology text you have to study a little, in art too you have to be interested and look for where things come from. In all things, whatever they may be, if you want to know more you have to get involved."

A little, in the supplement Now Sunday This week we have tried to contribute by providing some keys to the work and thought of Muntadas, surely one of the most relevant Catalan artists of recent decades, whose work has been primarily interested in social and political themes, with special attention to the media and its relationship with public space.

In addition to an extensive interview with the artist, we have taken a tour of his work, with the common thread of the cities where he has presented his works, selecting from the more than 200 pieces some of those that we consider most representative. From the first video works and the actions of the seventies to the latest pieces, in which he creates complex installations that question citizen control.

All his work is collected in the Muntadas Archive, a vast online documentation archive, part of which is accessible to the public. Furthermore, his work has been featured in several exhibitions in recent years, he is well represented in the MACBA collection, and he has also received almost every award possible, from the National Prize of Catalonia to the Velázquez Prize. However, in this supplement, we aim to bring to a wider audience the essential work of this nomadic and humble artist whose art always encourages us to view the world from a critical and alert perspective. In the world that is upon us, his call is more necessary than ever.

Cadaqués / 'Local Channel' / 1974. A television station of the people and for the people
1 de 21 Arxiu / AM
Cadaqués / 'Local Channel' / 1974. A television station of the people and for the people

This is an alternative television project that served as a model for later experiences, some of which Muntadas himself carried out. At the end of the Franco regime, when only official television existed, and in Spanish, he created a local channel whose protagonists were people from the town, and which addressed the reality of the town, already marked by tourism: the villagers viewed tourists with displeasure, even though they depended on them, and the visitors who only spent the summer in the town were unaware. Thus, Muntadas recorded the interviews and reports during the winter and broadcast them during the summer. "We wanted to make television with the people of the town, for the people of the town," Muntadas said of the project. The broadcasts could be seen at the Bar Marítimo and the town's Casino, so the project also served as an element of social cohesion. The Cadaqués gallery, a legendary venue founded by Ianfranco Bombelli, was the set where he conducted the interviews. Journalist Josep Maria Martí Font published three articles about the project in the Barcelona DiaryThis generated widespread attention, but also led to the Ministry of Information and Tourism taking notice, causing the broadcasts to be interrupted.
Barcelona / 'Art⇄Life' / 1974. Experience and aesthetics
2 de 21 Muntadas i Joan Sagristà
Barcelona / 'Art⇄Life' / 1974. Experience and aesthetics

In an interview with ARA a few years ago, Muntadas asserted that "art cannot speak about art, it must speak about life." This is a core idea of his artistic thought. One of the first times he expressed this idea was in the 1970s, when he coined the expression "Art⇄Life". It is more than a motto, as it reflects the conviction that art and life feed off each other. "This image has two arrows in each direction, because I don't believe, like the Fluxus people, that art and life are the same, but that there is a distance," he explains. "I don't think that drinking a glass of water is a work, it must be. Works can be a ready-made, but there is a distance, a dilated time which is that of art." The image ofArt⇄Life The work illustrated in this column involved an action in which he used a television monitor and placed it on the ground on Comerç Street, opposite the Gare de France, on November 10, 1974, between eight and ten at night. It all went to pot when a truck hit the television. A year earlier, he had stamped the same slogan in English on a round mirror and walked around the streets of New York with it.

Buenos Aires - Sao Paulo - Caracas - Mexico City 'Today - Action / Situation' / 1975-1976. The physical body and the social body
3 de 21 Arxiu / AM
Buenos Aires - Sao Paulo - Caracas - Mexico City 'Today - Action / Situation' / 1975-1976. The physical body and the social body

Muntadas learned of Franco's death while traveling from Argentina to Bolivia. He had been living in the United States for four years, and was invited to do the same. Today-Action/Situation, in different countries: Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, and Mexico. This action posed a confrontation between public and private information. Thus, while in a dimly lit space a row of newspapers of all kinds, including clandestine ones, hung on the wall and represented public information, he projected an image onto his bare chest, acting like a screen and amplifying the sound of his breathing throughout the room. As Muntadas himself said, it was a work that had to do with "the idea of existing," of being alive in often difficult contexts, and it was received differently in each country. On the other hand, this is a work that illustrates how Muntadas worked with emotions at that time.

Kassel (Documenta VI) / 'The Last Ten Minutes' / 1977. Television and subliminal messages
4 de 21 Arxiu / AM
Kassel (Documenta VI) / 'The Last Ten Minutes' / 1977. Television and subliminal messages

In 1977, Muntadas participated in Documenta VI, the prestigious contemporary art exhibition held every five years in the German city of Kassel. The VI was the first time that the media art They entered this event through the front door, with the presence of artists such as Rebeca Horn, Bill Viola, and the historic Nam June Paik and Wolf Wostell. Muntadas—who had also been a pioneer in the use of video and who belongs to what could be called the second generation of video artists, that of Vito Acconci and Peter Campus, for example—presented the second version of the work The Last Ten Minutes. There were three monitors that displayed the last minutes of what could be seen on television in Washington, Kassel, and Moscow. Nowadays, television stations broadcast nonstop, but before, there was a time when the broadcast was cut off, and in the final minutes, national symbols from each country appeared, such as flags and anthems, as well as news and religious or political speeches. "The last minutes were the almost subliminal messages that the person received before going to sleep," Muntadas recalls. The artist combined these recordings with a succession of images he shot on the streets of these three cities. The juxtaposition of the two recordings showed the contrast between the diversity of the people and the homogenization that television stations were already advocating at the time. In 1997, Muntadas returned to Kassel for Documenta X, one of the most groundbreaking in history.
New York / 'Political Advertisements' 1984-2024. The Ads That Win Elections
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New York / 'Political Advertisements' 1984-2024. The Ads That Win Elections

If there's one place where a country and its political evolution can be understood, it's through election ads. Society's dreams, fears, controversies, concerns, and ambitions are magnified, and often manipulated and distorted, to sell each candidate's message. How they are presented, and in what manner and what message they send, is often key to whether or not they achieve electoral victory. Since 1984, Muntadas and Marshall Reese—an American artist also focused on the analysis of new media—have dissected these messages through intentional and subjective editing of election clips, in which, without any voiceover, the messages and their evolution are made clear. The first edition of Political Advertisement It ran from 1952 (with Eisenhower) to 1984 (with Reagan). After that, they re-edited the video piece every four years, adding new ads, until today. It is, therefore, a long-running project that they always present a month before each election.

New York / 'This is Not an Advertisement' / 1985. Subverting the media with their weapons
6 de 21 Foto: Pamela Duffy
New York / 'This is Not an Advertisement' / 1985. Subverting the media with their weapons

Between 1982 and 1990, The Public Art Foundation created a program called Messages to the public where each month an artist could perform a 30-second intervention on the big screen in Times Square, New York. Many artists participated, from Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger to Keith Haring and Vitto Acconci. In 1985, Antoni Muntadas performed there This is Not an Advertisement [This is not an advertisement], on which were written words like fragmentation, subliminal and speed, and the phrases "This is not an advertisement" and "This is an advertisement". The artist had settled in New York in 1971 and during the eighties he was part of the artistic context of the city, in which there was a whole sector of artists who were very activists and concerned with social issues and critical of the official media, something that had already concerned him since his arrival. Thus, the artists appropriated many of those revolted by advertising and they appropriated many of them the advertising and they appropriated many of their messages.
Manhattan / 'The Limousine Project' / 1990. Putting criticism in the face of those in power
7 de 21 Foto: Timothy P. Karr
Manhattan / 'The Limousine Project' / 1990. Putting criticism in the face of those in power

With this project, Muntadas took to the streets and spoke out against corruption, violence, the impact of unbridled capitalism on urban planning, and gender discrimination in front of political and economic leaders. The Limousine Project It consisted of a black limousine—a symbol of power—turned into a mobile projector of slogans, including "Censorship as obscenity, media manipulation as obscenity, gentrification as obscenity..." The slogans were visible from the pedestrian area outside, and Muntadas drove the limousine around specific locations, such as Wall Street—as the epicenter of economic power—the United Nations headquarters—as a political center—and Broadway—representative of leisure, luxury hotels, and entertainment—with video footage by Toni. Other slogans were taken from advertisements or were political headlines and slogans. The project also included a space serving as a limousine rental office with further materials about the project and the tours at the New Museum.
Barcelona / 'Dos Colors' / 1979. On Spanish and Catalan nationalism
8 de 21 Muntadas
Barcelona / 'Dos Colors' / 1979. On Spanish and Catalan nationalism

Ten years after abandoning painting, Muntadas returned, but as a wall painter, in one of his works most closely related to the politics of Catalonia and Spain. Two Colors This installation was presented in November 1979 in Space B5-125 of the art department of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Instead of his usual criticism of the media, in this case he denounced Franco's ideological manipulation and repression in Catalonia. Thus, Muntadas divided the room into two equal parts and painted them, respectively, yellow and red, because both colors appear in both the Spanish and Catalan flags. The room was painted from top to bottom, including the floor. Furthermore, Muntadas placed a Spanish flag at one end and a Catalan flag at the other. His goal was for viewers to feel challenged by the colors and flags when they entered the room, but it didn't quite work because, as the coordinator, Professor Teresa Camps, recalls, the room was so well painted and prepared that the public didn't enter so as not to spoil it.

12 EU countries / 'CEE Project' / 1989-1999. A home-grown European policy
9 de 21 Arxiu / AM
12 EU countries / 'CEE Project' / 1989-1999. A home-grown European policy

For Muntadas, objects are "artifacts," whose meaning and interpretation depend on the moment and context, since they also function on an anthropological level. Very often, he has had the materials he needs made in the city where he works, but he may also have them manufactured elsewhere. Whatever the case, he almost always uses them to point out social and political fault lines and, at the same time, give shape to his ideas, as is the case with CEE Project, a work that questioned the politics and economic milestones of the European Union, which was still under construction at the time. The protagonist of this project, initially presented in 1989 in Brussels at the Des Beaux Arts gallery, is an everyday object: a carpet. After observing how "the public and private sectors share seemingly similar organizational, power, and decision-making structures," Muntadas commissioned a Kortrijk tapestry factory to create twelve carpets bearing the flag of the European Union—which represented 12 states at the time—and installed them in London, Madrid, Calais, Thessaloniki, Porto, and Stockholm until the 12 featured states were complete. And to underline "the relationships between cultural symbols and the economy," the carpets had, in the center of each star, a reproduction of each of the state currencies, as the work predated the euro. One of the key elements of the work was to observe whether people stepped on the European flag or deviated from it out of respect.

Boston / 'The Board Room' / 1987. The keywords of manipulation
10 de 21 Arxiu / AM
Boston / 'The Board Room' / 1987. The keywords of manipulation

Who dares to enter a room while being bombarded with promises from a dozen political, religious, economic, and media leaders? With the conference table that features in the installation, Muntadas created a space that is more metaphorical than real about the manipulation of words by the powerful, and about their relationship with the media. Thus, the conference table The Board Room It is surrounded by Muntadas' own enlarged and colorized portraits of 13 religious figures significant to the United States, including John Paul II, Ayatollah Khomeini, televangelist Reverend Ike, and Guru Maharishi. The portraits are unique in that they have a small monitor in their mouths where excerpts of their speeches can be heard, and Muntadas embedded images of the most frequently repeated words, among them. strategy, future, power and money.
Sidney / 'Words. The Press Conference Room' / 1993. The alarming degradation of political language
11 de 21 Foto: Tim Marshall
Sidney / 'Words. The Press Conference Room' / 1993. The alarming degradation of political language

Within the central line of how Muntadas critically analyzes the functioning of the media, and how they relate to power, the installation The Press Conference (1991-2017) consists of the recreation of a press room. The reconstruction consists of a path made with the front pages of different newspapers (half folder) and a lectern filled with microphones. The lectern is lit as if a politician or spokesperson were going to be installed at any moment, but no one is ever there. Furthermore, at the other end there is a television where images of politicians speaking are constantly projected. But what they say is unintelligible, because the installation's soundtrack is made up of the accumulation of their speeches. This degradation of words reflects how, over the years, Muntadas has drawn attention to the fact that some fundamental political ideas have been losing weight, while others have gained, such as opinion, and fake newsMuntadas believes that society has "degraded" words through politics and the media, and in recent years he has produced several works warning of the drift of notions such as ideology, demagoguery, debate, and transparency. "Everything has changed. A certain political-economic oligarchy has emerged that you can call Trump, Bolsonaro, Le Pen, Meloni, or Vox, and it is manipulating the entire situation and using the word democracy. Words have lost their meaning," the artist lamented on the occasion of the opening of a recent exhibition in Brazil.

Berlin / 'Stadium IX' / 1993. Stadiums for contemporary bread and circuses
12 de 21 Arxiu / AM
Berlin / 'Stadium IX' / 1993. Stadiums for contemporary bread and circuses

Massive shows and sporting events can have an overwhelming ideological charge. The Romans already knew this with their famous bread and circuses. "The shows are presented by the producers, managers, hosts, etc. through the packaging of events, using architecture, advertising, design and multimedia presentation to immerse the audience in a conscious/unconscious state of leisure," said Muntadas on the occasion of the project Stadium (1989-2011)"Indoctrination and control come through entertainment, in the form of games and competitions," he warned, "and the seduction of the audience through spectacular and monumental performances is the ultimate success. Then the audience is trapped and consumed." He demonstrated all of this with installations in cities such as New York, Valencia, Berlin, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo, consisting of column-lined structures. These structures served to evoke places like Berlin's Olympic Stadium, which served both to host the 1937 Olympic Games and to bring masses together for Nazi Party rallies.

Barcelona / 'On Translation. The Image' / 2002. Power Relations
13 de 21 Muntadas
Barcelona / 'On Translation. The Image' / 2002. Power Relations

In 2002, the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (Macba) carried out a major review of all the projects in the series. On translation, launched in 1995 and still ongoing, in which he explores translation as the cultural interpretation of all types of communicative processes, whether literary, visual, emotional, or economic. In this exhibition, which features an important collection of his work, he also presented some new works. One of them is On Translation. The image, which is included in another series entitled MeetingsHere, he uses photographs of decision-making meetings and board meetings—in this case, the board meeting of the MACBA itself—and depicts the silhouettes of the participants in vivid colors. Muntadas defines them as "anti-photos and anti-drawings," a kind of X-ray that only shows the typology of the spaces and the relationships between people. This image, in addition to being presented in a large format at the museum, was distributed on stickers, postcards, posters, and billboards throughout the city, coordinated and produced by Rosa Pera.

Paris / 'On Translation. Petit et Grand' / 2002. The traps of adjectives
14 de 21 Muntadas
Paris / 'On Translation. Petit et Grand' / 2002. The traps of adjectives

Words have meanings that go beyond their literal meaning, which is why translation is often so difficult. In this project, Petit et Grand, Muntadas focused a little on the French character and his use of words little and grand. Little It is, he says, a bit of false modesty and paternalism, but also private and humble; grand It is a bit of the bombast of the magnitude pretentious, but also relevance and value, and often has a political and social meaning. In the piece, presented at the Gabriel Maubrie gallery, he collected all kinds of elements of popular culture, from book and record covers to labels, posters, urban plaques, headlines, songs and advertisements that used one of the two words. He composed and arranged them in a collatable manner accompanied by a video in which the image had to do with the concept of grand and the sound with that of little.

Venice / 'On Translation. And Giardini' / 2005. The Venice Biennale on the couch
15 de 21 Foto: Claudio Franzini
Venice / 'On Translation. And Giardini' / 2005. The Venice Biennale on the couch

Twenty years later, the Spanish pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale still resonates as a pioneering challenge to the Biennale. While the art world increasingly welcomes voices from previously ignored contexts and genealogies, the Biennale remains committed to its outdated model of national pavilions. One of Muntadas's main lines of work in Venice was based on critically analyzing the transformations of the Giardini di Castello, which has hosted the Biennale since 1897, from its original Napoleonic public space to a venue for entertainment and spectacle. The interior of the pavilion was striking because Muntadas transformed it into an aseptic space, somewhere between a waiting room and an information point dedicated to the series. On Translation.

Bogotá / 'On Translation. Applause' / 1999. Trivializing violence
16 de 21 Foto: Magdalena Martínez Franco
Bogotá / 'On Translation. Applause' / 1999. Trivializing violence

Once again, Muntadas criticizes the media, this time on the fact that the repetition of information ends up trivializing and anesthetizing viewers. Above all, he denounces how violence in the media often ends up being transformed into a spectacle. The Applause It consists of a three-channel video installation, in the center of which still images of violence, especially from Colombia, alternate without sound. On the two side screens, sequences of loud applause can be heard.
Manila / 'Mantonas de Manila' / 2021. The prolonged echo of colonial violence
17 de 21 Foto: Pepe Morón
Manila / 'Mantonas de Manila' / 2021. The prolonged echo of colonial violence

Muntadas has said of himself that he is a outsider who takes ownership of places through "listening, speaking, and dialogue." One of the latest countries in which he worked for the first time was the Philippines. He found an aggressiveness, he says, that wasn't insecurity in the streets but "a violence of the political gestures of the invasions, and of the people who arrived there and created a conflict." Thus, when he worked there a few years ago, he was inspired by the objects and plants carried by Magellan's galleon. With this, he put his finger on the sore spot of the ravages of colonialism, beginning with "botanical colonization," which he represented with a series of painted plates whose Spanish plants became invaders on the islands. He also worked with shawls – in which colonization is in reverse, because they became popular in Spain – but Muntadas hammered home the point and instead of flowers he had fifteen heartbreaking historical images of the country embroidered, such as the executions of young Filipinos by the American army and a demonstration of support for the women who carried them out. comfort women.
Shanghai / 'Red' / 2017. Under the communist bomb
18 de 21 Arxiu / AM
Shanghai / 'Red' / 2017. Under the communist bomb

Curiosity about discovering new places and cultures is one of Muntadas' driving forces, as he explored the Asian continent years ago. In China, when he was finishing the project Asian protocols, produced a final work that casts a critical eye on the images and trappings of power. Specifically, on how red is the color quintessentially associated with the regime. So on October 1, 2017, coinciding with the commemoration of the 68th anniversary of the creation of the People's Republic of China, he took to the streets and dedicated himself to identifying and collecting objects, images, and graphic elements in which red predominated. In this way, he revealed the contrast between capitalist banality and the collective energy of citizens. Furthermore, in the broader perspective of his body of work in China, Korea, and Japan, he highlighted not only the similarities but, above all, the conflicts and complexities of the relationships they have with each other. "They've all had wars and conflicts with each other, and there's great hostility. It's incredible because they all travel around Europe, go to see Parc Güell and the Sagrada Família, but they don't travel among themselves, they don't communicate," explains the artist.

São Paulo / 'Public Place' / 2025. Against the control and usurpation of public spaces
19 de 21 Foto: Edouard Fraipont
São Paulo / 'Public Place' / 2025. Against the control and usurpation of public spaces

Among Muntadas' latest major interventions are Public Place, for which he transformed the Sesc Pompeya center in São Paulo into a laboratory for art, architecture, and public space from April to the end of August. Muntadas' relationship with Brazil goes back a long way, dating back to the beginning of his career, when São Paulo was one of the first Latin American cities where he developed his projects. At Sesc Pompeya, Muntadas warned that "there is less and less public space" and what remains is increasingly "more commercial, corporate, and controlled by the abundance of surveillance cameras." Sesc Pompeia is a unique building: it is the intervention of Italian-Brazilian architect Lina Bo Bardi, transforming a former drum factory while maintaining its industrial and brutalist spirit. Among massive concrete structures and giant iron beams, Muntadas emptied and deployed a series of 25 totems with videos of people in different public spaces in São Paulo, places of rest and calm, to take ownership of the space, and with illuminated signs to challenge visitors and ask, "Where are we going?" In this way, he wanted to show that beyond architecture, public space is embodied by people, their social interaction, acts of resistance, and the collective enjoyment of places. "Public can be an audience, but it can also be a site, and this work refers to how this space becomes public," Muntadas explained.

Columbus, Ohio / 'Between the Frames. The Forum' / 1983–1993. Putting a finger on the art world's eye
20 de 21 Arxiu / AM
Columbus, Ohio / 'Between the Frames. The Forum' / 1983–1993. Putting a finger on the art world's eye

The media hasn't been Muntadas's only focus. His work has also been particularly incisive in his own world, that of art. The most extreme case is Between the Frames, a work created between 1983 and 1993 in which he interviewed 160 people related to the international art circuit: dealers, gallery owners, collectors, museum managers, guides, critics, and specialists from various media outlets, with a subsequent epilogue speaking with artists. It is a review of the art of the eighties that features the presence of many of the main figures of the period. However, they only appear at the beginning of the work, since their statements, their vision of the work, are felt while a video shows images of traffic in Los Angeles (when the dealers speak) or ocean waves in San Diego (when the critics do). The artist decided to present this work as a circular installation with seven spaces of different colors, one for each guild, with a monitor with edited interviews. Of the 200 hours recorded in total, 260 minutes remain. In the center is a meeting space, the forum, which he describes as a reverse panopticon, which he hopes will foster debate with the public. In 2010, the MACBA purchased this work, and the artist deposited all the original interviews in the documentation center. Between the Frames It is one of the best examples of Muntadas's work process. On the one hand, it encompasses a long production and research process utilizing the tools of social science researchers. On the other hand, the artist projects his vision onto the results—although they are accessible and an important document—through the editing of the material and the choice of how to display it, which is what brings the creativity that transforms the project into a subjective and unique work of art.
Cambridge (Massachusetts) / 'About academy' / 2011. Inside the elite university
21 de 21 Arxiu Muntadas
Cambridge (Massachusetts) / 'About academy' / 2011. Inside the elite university

One of Muntadas's careers has been as a teacher, which he has always combined and linked with his artistic work. When he completed his time at the Center for Visual Arts at the MIT School of Architecture, where he had collaborated as a researcher and professor since the mid-1970s, he was commissioned by Harvard to complete a final project. He chose to focus on the university itself and MIT, seeking to spark a public debate about the problems and challenges of higher education and how it was being taught. Thus, he began a series of interviews with professors from MIT, Harvard, Columbia, and other elite American institutions, and later also included students. The result, edited and presented in an exhibition format, was first presented at Harvard's Carpenter Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2011, and has subsequently had several versions when it has been shown in other cities and countries. He defines it as an "artifact" that allows him to activate talks, courses, and debates about local universities in each location.

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