Arte e imaginarios turísticos VI: ¡Auténticas postales!

Island in the Sky, Cypress Gardens, Florida, postcard, n.d.

Working seminar and lectures, MNCARS, Madrid, September 19, 2024.

https://www.museoreinasofia.es/actividad/arte-e-imaginarios-turisticos-vi

The sixth edition of Art and Tourist Imaginaries, a series of meetings organized with the TURICOM research group, proposes a study that addresses the phenomenon of postcards and their impact on shaping the themes and stereotypes that have defined the collective imaginary of geographies, people, and consumption habits in contemporary visual culture.

The use of postcards became widespread at the end of the 19th century, coinciding with the rise of mass consumer culture. Their main qualities were speed, conciseness, and low cost, all in line with a line of thought marked by utilitarianism. They originated as textual communications of a commercial or personal nature that tended to be very brief and standardized due to their public nature. However, the introduction of imagery at the beginning of the 20th century marked a departure from the functional austerity of its beginnings and its transformation into a fully modern product. On a small scale, the evolution of the tourist postcard parallels that of the capitalist system of production itself, evolving from a simple messaging item into a hybrid picture that balances the allure of the places it displays with its role as a souvenir: a private message that employs commercial and advertising rhetoric, thereby acquiring a popular character.

Halfway between a medium of communication and a visual commodity, between an abbreviated letter and standardized panoramas, the postcard is a privileged object for understanding how the cultural dynamics of stereotypes are created and perpetuated, as postcards often feature idealised or standardized images of places and situations. As a commodity, the postcard is permeated by the dominant discourse of modernity, according to which the price of progress entails the loss of authenticity—a quality that is relegated to the exterior and the distant, to far-off places and a bygone era. Through all of this, the postcard is both a reflection and a key agent of this modernizing project, being particularly equipped for the construction of cultural stereotypes and the nostalgic invocation of lost authenticity.

Starting from this premise, this symposium investigates the postcard as a vehicle and factory of clichés from the perspective of authenticity, a key concept for the discourses of consumption and, increasingly, of politics. In a context of culture wars based on stereotyped rhetoric, clichés, and brief messages, it is possible that this humble newsstand trifle can teach us valuable lessons about the relationship between the stereotyped and the authentic.

This is the final meeting of a six-year collaboration between the Museo Reina Sofía and the TURICOM research group, which has produced critical reflections on the tourist subject, leisure time, and contemporary art.

Program

Thursday Sep 19, 2024 at 17:00 

Presentation 

By José Díaz Cuyás

Thursday Sep 19, 2024 at 17:10 

Real Colors. Two Hundred and Forty-Three Postcards by Georges Perec

 By Julián Díaz Sánchez "Two Hundred and Forty-Three Postcards in Real Colors" (1978) is a text by Georges Perec that addresses the notion of authenticity through imageless postcard texts that can evoke a more or less ideal tourist landscape. In this presentation, Julián Díaz Sánchez confronts Perec's notion of authenticity with that of the philosopher Gilles Lipovetsky, who demonstrates the expansion of the concept in a "Disneylandized" world.

Thursday Sep 19, 2024 at 17:25 

Greetings from. On Various Uses of the Postcard in Contemporary Artistic Practices 

By Rogelio López Cuenca Beyond its presence in the mail art tradition, the postcard has been used by some contemporary artists to refer critically or parodically to its function within tourist culture and by exploiting its communicative potential. This session introduces several examples that show the diversity of strategies and objectives in its specific use or when combined with other media: Marina Seascape (1998) and Malagana (2000), by Rogelio López Cuenca; ¡Desengánchate! and ¡Apostata! (1991), by Agustín Parejo School; ¡Visite Ciudad Juárez! (2003-2011), by Ambra Polidori; Zaidín Monumental (2000), by Javier Longobardo; Paisatges Fragmentats (2017), by Laura Marte, or Conflictes Urban (2002), by Arquitectes Sense Fronteres - Plataforma veïnal contra l’especulació.

Thursday Sep 19, 2024 at 17:40 

Postcards in Art. The Provocation of the Stereotype

 By José Díaz Cuyás Since the beginning of the 20th century, the postcard has been the paradigm of the stereotype in mass culture. In its artistic use, "the postal," the cliché and mass-produced, has a transgressive function, as is the case in Surrealist and Pop works. From a rhetorical perspective, the value of authenticity we grant to transgression lies in the act of transgressing itself, when it is perceived as an unmasking. In this talk, José Díaz Cuyás invites us to question that elusive provocative power of stereotypes, especially today, when clichés have become algorithmic.

Thursday Sep 19, 2024 at 17:55 

Postal Fictions 

By Cristina Arribas and Carmelo Vega What makes the postcards of the Spanish tourism boom so different and attractive? Through two exhibition projects—Postcard Dialogue (Diálogo de postales, Museum of History and Anthropology of Tenerife, 2023-2024) and Postal Discourses (Discursos postales, Andalusian Center of Photography, 2024)—and from a perspective of tourist image theory, this presentation proposes keys to solving this enigma. The true value of postcards lies not only in their enormous structural and visual power as contemporary micro-narratives of tourism, but mainly in their capacity to create formal and conceptual solutions that challenge all conventional logic. Far from documenting the phenomenon they illustrate, they construct fictional realities that exist only on postcards.

Thursday Sep 19, 2024 at 18:10

 Break

Thursday Sep 19, 2024 at 18:30

Presentation of Casa Planas 

By Alelí Mirelman and Marina Planas The Casa Planas project is a non-profit collective organization founded by the artist Marina Planas in 2015 in response to the urgent need for an interdisciplinary contemporary creation and interpretation center on tourism in the Balearic Islands. Alelí Mirelman is the project director of Casa Planas and coordinator of the COSTA Tourist Image Observatory.

Thursday Sep 19, 2024 at 18:50 

Rapporteurship and Debate 

Moderated by Alicia Fuentes