Friday, January 13, 2017 to Friday, February 24, 2017
Forest City Gallery is pleased to present Los Fantasmas an exhibition by Coco Guzman.
Join us for the opening reception of this exhibition on Friday, January 13th from 7 - 9 PM.
Opening Reception: Friday, January 13th from 7 - 9 PM
Exhibition Duration: Friday, January 13th – Friday, February 24th, 2017
About the exhibition:
LOS FANTASMAS
Los Fantasmas is an illustrated narration dealing with the laws of silence and the ways in which silenced histories emerge and survive, in spite of the powers in place that work to erase the facts and events of human history. Los Fantasmas is the story of hundreds of mass graves in Spain. But it can also be the story of many other lands and people who are fighting to keep history/present/memory/identity alive against criminal systems in power.
Los Fantasmas is a 16m long visual storytelling and an exploration of the silenced contemporary history of Spain. In 2010, experts calculated that more than 200,000 bodies had been buried in mass graves during the Spanish war (1936-1939) and the years of Franco’s fascist dictatorship (1939-1975). These same international experts considered Spain to have the second highest number of mass graves in the world. These are the bodies and civilians who fought fascism or who were on the way of the fascist troops. Their deaths-bodies-possessions-lives-families-suffering have never been acknowledged by the dictator regime nor the ¨democratic¨ governments in place, nor the ¨democratic¨ laws. Their fight against fascism inspire now the fight of hundreds of thousands of people in Spain who are fighting the government fascist policies and advocating for the recovering of this silenced history.
Los Fantasmas es una narración ilustrada que reflexiona sobre las leyes del silencio y cómo las historias silenciadas emergen y sobreviven, a pesar de los poderes oficiales. Los Fantasmas es la historia de las fosas comunes y los crímenes de guerra en España. Expertos han calculado que más de 200.000 personas fueron enterradas en fosas comunes. Estos cuerpos pertenecen a aquell*s que lucharon contra el fascismo o a civiles víctimas de un genocidio enfocado en crear terror. Este régimen fascista comienza en la Guerra Civil (1936 – 39), continúa en la dictadura franquista (1939 – 75) y renace ahora en las políticas actuales. La lucha y la resistencia antifascista inspira ahora los movimientos sociales que luchan contra las políticas criminales del gobierno y por la recuperación de esta memoria histórica.
About the artist:
Coco was born in Murcia, small city in Southern Spain in 1979. At 19 they moved to France to study and became involved in the feminist, queer, and anarchist movements. After having obtained a MA in Comparative Literature at Paris VIII University, Coco pursued their BFA at Toulouse Fine Arts Academy. Coco moved to Montreal in 2008 and currently lives in Toronto. Coco is a professional visual artist, illustrator, and the co-founder of drag/performance/drawing collective Colectivo Pez Luna / Moonfish Collective. They currently teach at Seneca College (York) and Lakehead University.
Coco's work has been exhibited in Canada (Montreal, Toronto, St. Jonh's) as well as internationally in museum, galleries and festival of Europe (Spain, Netherlands, Germany), South Korea and Costa Rica. They have received the support of Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council and Quebec Arts Council. Their illustrations and critical articles have been published by specialized art magazines (HB, .dpi) and tcuratorial and academic publications (Oxford University Press, Interarts, etc). Coco is currently working on their new project, Paraiso, that will be exhibited at Quebec International Biennial, Manif d'Art 8.