The Hard Gelatin. Hidden Stories from the 80s exhibition arose out of a will to overcome the hegemonic narrative and focus on the unofficial stories of the Spanish Transition. Great achievements were reached in that search for consensus, but the political steps towards democracy, and the modernity and euphoria they brought with them, were parts of a gelatinous facade. The structure was to be more complex and much harder, with a society which seemed unable to face up to its contradictions and dark side. Three writers neatly sum up the spirit of the project with texts which analyse the period: Teresa Grandas, the exhibition's curator, film-maker Pere Portabella and essayist Servando Rocha.

This is the catalogue that accompanies a solo exhibition of the work of Domenec, an artist born in 1962 in Mataro, a town in Catalonia. The exhibition sets out to contemplate, through the artist`s work, how neoliberalism destroys social projects with its escalation of individualism. In doing so it offers a retrospective of Domenec`s work from the late 1990s to the present, and includes some new projects. Using certain emblematic buildings or monuments as referents, Domenec analyses the proposals of the modern movement and its legacy within contemporary practice. Supporting his research are projects in situ, installations, maquettes, photographs, workshops, seminars and videos. Based on various local contexts, his work establishes a dialogue with other international themes to highlight the impact on the present of the utopian ideas that resulted from the Industrial Revolution, and are seen as a stand against capitalism. The rise of an urban proletariat in the C19 led to discourses and social models based on social justice and egalitarianism. Utopian communism and socialism developed architectonic models promoting a concept of coexistence in the urban space based on services to the community and better living conditions. Domenec investigates these exemplary systems and the breakdown of what he calls the ` fragile contract between capital and the social body` . The transformations of the socio-political circumstances generated by these systems can also lead, at times, to changes of usage and the creation of dystopic models. Social housing turned into military barracks or internment camps; statues of circumstantial heroes that were pulled down because of their meaning, or counter meaning; or the absurdity of a ghost city used for military training in urban warfare, but never officially recognized, are some of the cases used by Domenec to investigate the dysfunctions of the processes of modernity and the political accounts marginalised by these narratives. In other words, the breakdown of a social project that has become, as a result of neoliberalism, the exacerbation of individualism. Domenec`s work gives voice to the protagonists of that story, to unofficial discourses, and avoids the dominant narratives to bring back memory

"Brossa does not create; he selects", says Roger Bernat. And, indeed, Brossa works with scattered poems, ideas noted in margins, sentences, press cuttings, theatrical and paratheatrical plays. Poetry Brossa presents the artist's work against the grain, beyond limits, and between disciplines through his books, visual investigations, theatre, cinema, music and artistic actions. Structured in the form of a glossary, the book also establishes parallels with the work of three artists who were Brossa's contemporaries: Marcel Marien, Nicanor Parra and Ian Hamilton-Finlay. The publication includes essays by the curators Teresa Grandas and Pedro G. Romero, and contributions by Roger Bernat, Isabel de Naveran and Maria Salgado, who conceive some of the core definitions in the glossary. There is also an analysis by Llorenc Mas of a selection of sequences from the short film No compteu amb els dits (Don't Count with Your Fingers, 1967), directed by Pere Portabella. Additionally, three inserts feature works by Brossa, including Oda a Joan Brossa, Novella, and the collaborative piece Barcelona per Brossa.