Sade. Freedom or Evil
An exhibition that explores the aesthetic, philosophical and political legacy of the Marquis de Sade in contemporary culture, from the early 20th-century avant-gardes to the present day.
The libertine writer Donatien Alphonse François de Sade (1740-1814) is a controversial figure, regarded by some as a revolutionary, liberating thinker, and by others as a pernicious and corrupting writer. His writings can be interpreted as a philosophy of freedom but also as a philosophy of evil.
The exhibition presents the figure of the Marquis de Sade and the influence that his legacy has had in the realm of thinking from the early 20th century up until the present day. It presents the impact that his controversial texts have had on a series of artists and intellectuals, and explains how he has become a very present icon in mass culture. In the 20th century, numerous works referring to him directly or indirectly were created, which can be seen as a sign of the fascination, uneasiness and contradictions that his ideas provoked last century, as well as proof of the subversive potential of his literary production that still resonates today.
“Sade. Freedom or Evil” is an invitation to revise stereotypes like the ones associated with the term sadism, and to reflect on how Sade can prompt shock and scandal on the one hand, and be hailed as the personification of revolution on the other. The exhibition addresses this analysis by looking at fundamental avant-garde figures who have celebrated the author: Guillaume Apollinaire, Georges Bataille, Salvador Dalí, Toyen and Man Ray, among others. It also presents the critical vision of Pier Paolo Pasolini and the reflections of contemporary artists who explore freedom of expression, the transmutation of gender roles, desire, violence, the institutionalization of terror and the role of pornographic imagination in consumer society.
The exhibition comprises documentation of the historical performances of Jean Benoît and Jean-Jacques Lebel, photography projects by Marcelo Brodsky, Robert Mapplethorpe, Pierre Molinier and Susan Meiselas, and references to works of literature, cinema and comic books, along with videos of interviews with philosophers and researchers. Installations by artists such as Laia Abril, Paul Chan, Shu Lea Cheang, Teresa Margolles, Joan Morey and Kara Walker take their place alongside new productions by Joan Fontcuberta and Domestic Data Streamers, with references to the works for stage of Angélica Liddell, Albert Serra and Candela Capitán, and the filming of an excerpt from Le retour de Sade, by Bernard Noël, directed by Guillem Sánchez Garcia and featuring Clàudia Abellán and Joel Cojal.
