Propaganda por el acto de recordar

Propaganda por el acto de recordar is an archive composed of diagrams, images and historical documents, which traces in selected leaps various moments of political history in search of the ideological and institutional roots of the contemporary Western world. The main focus is on the years around 1790, when France and Haiti underwent revolutions that were decisive for the configuration of the Western political order. The work moves away from the decorum of the hegemonic historical narrative and seeks to recover the militancy of images, which are understood as receptacles of political action capable of confronting the iconographic discourses bequeathed by the dominant classes. 

Efrén Álvarez
 

Efrén Álvarez, an artist based in Barcelona, investigates the potential of drawing and diagrams in the construction of political narratives and social criticism, often embodied in cartographies of social and anthropological schemes. His artistic approach is characterised by an ideologically militant stance, integrating diverse intellectual and political traditions in the exploration of alternative ways of thinking.

His work is distinguished by an explicit graphic and political frankness, evoking the critical and chronicling tradition of artists such as Leech, Hogarth, Goya, Crumb or Rius. It focuses on the sensibilities of the turn of the millennium, addressing issues such as globalisation, the transformations of capitalism and, more recently, the representation of power and the construction of historical narratives.

His work has been exhibited in galleries, museums and independent spaces. Recently, he has contributed to the exhibitions Maquinaciones (2023) at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and Fabular paisatges (2025) at the Museu Habitat, where different stages of his Proyecto Ideología, a political-institutional genealogy of the Western world-system, were presented.