VIURE LLIURE
is intervention number 271213 by
Lúa Coderch
within the framework of the exhibition
La Muntanya Màgica
and was carried out in collaboration with LaFundició.
It consists of the installation, on one of the lampposts outside the Espai 14-15, of two banners on which the words ‘viure’ (live) and ‘lliure’ (free) can be read. Viure Lliure is the slogan of the commemorative events of the tricentenary of 1714 organized by the Barcelona City Council, and the banners hung in Bellvitge were part of its communication campaign before they were modified and relocated, since the official campaign is only present in the city of Barcelona and all the corporate image and all the graphic elements that identified them as part of the institutional campaign have been erased by Lúa.
VIURE LLIURE, the intervention, proposes to “free” the words from their institutional subjection, or rather to overflow the reading framework that has been imposed on them: it almost goes without saying that, in the Catalan context and in the current historical moment, the idea of freedom automatically alludes to the sovereignist process; in this way the historical narrative is united with current events, closely intertwining memory with contemporary controversies. Divesting the Viure Lliure campaign banners of any institutional brand does not make us forget their origin and the context in which this message has been put into circulation, but rather, in another way, invites us to think about how to read this slogan with a broader focus: what does ‘living in freedom’ mean? What do we understand by ‘freedom’?
At the same time, a contrary movement occurs: the anomalous introduction of this message in a specific context -the presence of a single set of banners in Prat street in L’Hospitalet, in front of Espai 14-15- invites passers-by, residents of Bellvitge or visitors, to think about what life in freedom is; at the same time the intervention enters into a new game of controversies since it is notorious that the party in government of the L’Hospitalet City Council was the first to launch an official campaign for no to independence. In this situation, historical, social and identity issues converge that Lúa Coderch’s intervention wants, precisely, to address from a political and philosophical perspective that is broader than the one usually raised by the media and the political arena of the parties.