The EFE Agency commemorated its 85th anniversary this Thursday with a photographic exhibition in Madrid under the title ‘Your collective memory‘, an artistic account of the events and protagonists of recent universal history which pays homage to the Victims of DANA. The exhibition highlights the role of the EFE in the construction of the collective imagination through the thousands of photographs that it publishes daily and which contribute to an archive of more than 25 million images.
A good part of them already consists of images of the disaster caused by rain in the provinces of Valencia and Albacete, which, two weeks later, continue to generate snapshots of great impact. These are the images of hundreds of towed cars at the water’s edge and crowded in the streets; sunken houses by the flow; the march of thousands of volunteers towards the isolated villages with shovels, brushes and supplies or the great tension experienced during the institutional visit to the region, are some of the snapshots that preside over this exhibition.
During the event, the EFE team told in the first person the tragedy of DANA and an interview also took place between the president of the EFE, Miguel Angel Oliver and the former presidents of the world’s first Spanish-language news agency in the 20th century Luis Maria Anson and Alfonso Sobrado Palomares.
“We wanted to focus on the tragedy that those affected by DANA suffered, as tribute to the fatal victimsto the missing and their families; to all those who have lost everything”, said the president of the agency, who recalled that, consistently, “EFE, as a public service, has openly presented all its contents to Spain and the world” .
History of Spain
The exhibition, which will host the Larra-Laboratorio de Periodismo space between November 15 and 30in Madrid, also offers a non-linear journey through different spaces that invite the viewer to participate through visual associations, chromatic compositions and large photographic prints on textile.
It begins in Spain, with a visual chronicle of the post-war period which oscillates between rural life and urban life, between forced exodus from the countryside and the development of big capital, all under the omnipresent echo of dictatorship.
Intimate portraits in small villages and old captures from the center of Madrid (like that of the “Línea de Microburros” transport service); wanderings of the “Friends of Cape Town” in the same street where the Armed Police pursue the demonstrators, or even barely known photos of John Wayne at Barajas Airport, among others, constitute this first segment.
Continue through the Transitiontold through two parallel lines – one social and the other political -, which refer to moments and sensations, to photo albums in color and black and white that are on family shelves.
The most unexpected photos of the political, cultural and sporting protagonists of this period (since Calvo-Sotelo until Johan Cruyffpassing through Lola Flores) and its most transcendent moments told from an unusual perspective and formats (vinyl floors and walls) that seek to generate an immersive environment.
Then the exhibition, which has its own thematic filter on Instagram and Facebook, opens its largest section to the rest of the world with a room divided by the Berlin Wallrepresented on two printed canvases ten meters long with photographs of its construction, on one side, and its fall, on the other.
sticky photographs
The exhibition also has a space that allows people visual impairment Discover and interact with some of the most iconic photographs from the EFE archives, thanks to new technology for processing 3D images, accompanied by stories in Braille and audio.
Before ending the visit, the visitor will find a collection of 1,000 adhesive photographs. You will be able to choose one and stick it on a wall fresco which, at the end of the exhibition, will remain as a common heritage of this exhibition.
