The players of the Spanish national football team lifting the World Cup in South Africa, on July 11, 2010; Berliners banging on the Berlin Wall, on November 9, 1989; a plane with passengers about to crash into one of the Twin Towers in New York, on September 11, 2001… These are three historical moments, and for many people, seeing the photographs that captured them brings back memories and feelings. Where was I that day? What did I feel when I saw that photo? Others, younger, perhaps hadn’t been born when these events happened or don’t remember them, but now they will be able to get an idea of what occurred.
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All these sensations will surely be in the minds of those who visit the EL PAÍS Festival during the first three days of next May, a major event at Matadero Madrid with which this newspaper will celebrate its first 50 years of commitment to journalism and its readers. One of the attractions of its program is the exhibition Momentos, curated by photographer and former graphic editor of this newspaper, Marisa Flórez (León, 1948). She was responsible for choosing 50 transcendental images since EL PAÍS was founded on May 4, 1976.
The photographs selected by Flórez can be seen on both sides of monoliths that will be outdoors, in Matadero square, at a size exceeding two meters wide by one meter high for horizontal images. Below each one, on a pedestal, the title of the photo and its author will be indicated, and it will also be possible to download a QR code for more information.
“It hasn’t been easy to choose, imagine everything that has happened in the last 50 years in Spain and in the world,” says Flórez at the Madrid headquarters of EL PAÍS while finalizing preparations for the exhibition, to which she has dedicated the last five months. “I have emphasized that the themes that have dominated current events throughout that time, and for which the newspaper has committed so much in Spanish politics, international affairs, social life, economy, sports, science, culture… A testimonial journey of five decades,” should be included.
However, for the exhibition, titled Momentos, Flórez has not sought a conventional summary or official photographs. “It wasn’t so much about finding the protagonists. We were more interested in the moments when something happened that made history.” What is the value of these images? “Their narrative power, each one freezes a moment, an experience.”
“Nor is it an exhibition about photographers,” she adds, “it’s about showing EL PAÍS’s point of view on what has happened this half-century and, in a way, it also tells the story of this newspaper.”
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This journey through recent history can be undertaken freely until full capacity is reached at the EL PAÍS Festival venue in Matadero Madrid, during its opening hours, from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Additionally, each of the three days there will be a guided tour with Flórez. This tour, in which Flórez will explain how these images were taken and their importance, will start from the Matadero information point, at Paseo de la Chopera, 14. On Friday, May 1, it will begin at 12:30 PM, and on Saturday, May 2, and Sunday, May 3, at 11:30 AM. After Matadero Madrid, the Momentos exhibition has planned new stops in Barcelona, Bilbao, Seville, Vigo, Gijón, Zaragoza, and Malaga.
In this visual journey, one can contemplate, for example, the spectacular image of CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, located near Geneva; a barge seen from the sky crowded with people risking their lives in the waters of the Mediterranean in search of a better future; or tennis players Rafa Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz together and in profile, as a doubles pair showing the same gesture of courage.
“Different things are told in each image I have chosen,” notes Flórez, whose work will include, for example, that of actress Susana Estrada showing a breast at an awards ceremony alongside socialist politician Enrique Tierno Galván, in 1978. A snapshot that symbolized openness and changing social customs in Spain. Another scene reflects one of the great moments of the Transition, when the poet Rafael Alberti and the historic communist leader Dolores Ibarruri, Pasionaria, descended the steps inside the Congress of Deputies, on the first day of the democratic cortes, in July 1977, amidst the surprised gazes of the other deputies.
Of the fifty photographs, Flórez estimates that slightly less than half are by EL PAÍS photographers: thus, alongside hers, one can see those by Ricardo Martín, Joan Sánchez, Ricardo Gutiérrez, Cristóbal Manuel, Alejandro Ruesga, Luis Magán, Manuel Escalera, Carlos Rosillo, César Lucas, Álvaro García, Alfredo García Francés, Gorka Lejarcegi, and Samuel Sánchez. Among other agency or freelance photographers, James Natchwey, Emilio Morenatti, and Goran Tomasevic stand out.
After a final look at paper copies of the photographs she has selected for the exhibition, which is sponsored by Telefónica, Flórez is clear about what she would like people to feel when they stand before these images and pause for a few seconds to contemplate them: “I would love this exhibition to faithfully reflect the newspaper that has accompanied these readers in their moments of joy and sadness. That it has accompanied them in their lives.”
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All information about the EL PAÍS festival at www.festivalelpais.es
