Tour-isms. The Defeat of Dissent

The consumer and leisure society together with information, communication and transportation technologies are accelerating this process and are profoundly transforming our perception of the world. Tour-isms seeks to examine various forms of tourism through art in order to open up a process of critical reflection on the influence of this global phenomenon on contemporary cultures and societies. Particular attention is given to the Spanish context. The project is structured around two interconnected realities. The first of these is the tourist-subject, the subject who activates environments and memories that are standardized, but legitimated by the individual nature of the experience and the exploration process. The tourist-subject also acts as a transforming agent actively involved in the cultural and social transformation processes affecting the territories visited. The second focal point for the exhibition is tourist spaces. Such spaces reveal some of the economic, political, cultural and social processes that define new forms of socialization and new uses and behaviors in the frontiers that exist between that which is private and that which is public, between the historic and the historicizable. Tour-isms does not seek to provide an exhaustive analysis of tourism or its historical development; neither does the exhibition aim to offer a superficial critique of tourism or tourists, or to establish new tourism models. Tour-isms is a transversal project that draws connections between a series of people and groups, who, through their work in a wide range of fields—including geography, history, sociology, cultural criticism, audiovisual practices, architecture, literature and cinema—provide insights into the mechanisms of representation that are generated by the discourse of tourism and play an increasingly significant role in defining images and spaces in the contemporary world. City (Barcelona as a model), Experience (the beach) and Story (souvenirs, photographs) are the three core themes around which this project is structured. Tour-isms will also incorporate archive materials and films related to the issues addressed. The project includes a publication with new and previously published texts, as well as visual and written material contributed by participants. A seminar will also be held with conferences, workshops and round tables. Pressetext

Tour-isms. The Defeat of Dissent
Kurator: Núria Enguita Mayo
Kokuratoren: Jorge Luis Marzo, Montse Romaní, Iván de la Nuez
Ausstellung im Rahmen von Forum Barcelona 2004