In the years preceding and following Expo in Seville, collectives such as the Desenmascaremos el 92 (Let’s Unmask ‘92) platform and other associations and social movements that were critical of the pomp surrounding the event questioned the zealous official Spanish narrative orbiting around a list of pertinent commemorations. They transversally grouped together ecologist, feminist and pacifist collectives, convened actions and promoted manifestos across Spain, with one of their tools of action DIY graphic art that was deliberately low-budget and based on the do it yourself ethos, leaning towards the reappropriation and re-signification of certain cultural elements and official symbology. 

These mobilisations called for a boycott and sought to grant visibility to aspects which the event kept in the dark, for instance genocide, housing speculation and the repression of all dissidence with respect to the predominant institutional discourse. The nerve centre of these acts of resistance was a protest against the commemoration of the Fifth Centenary organised on 19 April 1992 — on the eve of Expo’s opening — resulting in three casualties with gunshot wounds, numerous arrests and many other allegations of police brutality in police custody. A few months previously, the controversial Citizen Safety Protection Law (known as the Corcuera Law) had been approved, providing a legal framework of impunity for certain actions carried out by the State’s security forces and law enforcement.     

In 2017, in response to official acts to mark Expo’s twenty-fifth anniversary and in memory of the aforementioned demonstration and the victims of repression, a three-day event was held under the slogan “Nothing to Celebrate”.    

The work of Marcos Crespo Arnold forms the basis of the selection in this room.