ExhibitionSeptember 6, 2023· By Elisa Rodríguez Campo
"Monument to the Darkness" by Miguel G. Morales and Eugenio Merino.
The Centro Cultural El Tanque—attached to the Government of the Canary Islands—hosts "Monumento a la Oscuridad," a counter-monument, a proposal by Spanish artists Miguel G. Morales and Eugenio Merino who take a step further in their research on the visibility of the people who disappeared during the repression, in the context of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
It is surprising how the eight capitals of the Canary Islands have not yet managed to get rid of fascist vestiges in breach of the Law of Historical Memory, still holding 200 Francoist monuments.
"Monumento a la Oscuridad" is curated by Adonay Bermúdez (curator of the recent Biennial of Lanzarote) and was born as a collective project, an open wall of 6x8m formed by a polyptych of posters that since its inauguration expands, thanks to the active participation of the families and relatives of the victims, coming to group more than 160 photographs found or sent to email: monumentoalaoscuridad@gmail.com.
El Tanque has been chosen as a significant space because it was part of the refinery that sent oil to the Peninsula, activating at the time the fascist military machinery, which acted in collaboration with senior officials and businesspeople involved in the conspiracy of the 1936 coup d'état. El Tanque thus becomes the only memorial of all the people killed by the method of forced drowning, shot, or made to disappear in wells, ravines, or volcanic tubes during the coup d'état and repression in the archipelago.
Also on display is the homonymous video installation in which Merino and Morales sink a bronze plaque in the coordinates where the Tenerife poet Domingo Lopez Torres, admired by André Breton for his writings on surrealism, was murdered. The weight of the plaque is equivalent to the sack of stones with which he was condemned to drown. It is a way to commemorate and shed light on many anonymous stories in the Canary Islands during the Civil War and Francoism.
Also, in the final stretch to the closing of the exhibition, Merino and Morales proposed a sound action that was presented on August 31 at 8 p.m., in which the musician Fajardo and the writer Roy Galán performed the poetry book "Lo Imprevisto," an undercover work written in Fyffes prison by the young 26-year-old poet Domingo López Torres, months before his disappearance, and a symbol of the anti-fascist resistance.
It is surprising how the eight capitals of the Canary Islands have not yet managed to get rid of fascist vestiges in breach of the Law of Historical Memory, still holding 200 Francoist monuments.
"Monumento a la Oscuridad" is curated by Adonay Bermúdez (curator of the recent Biennial of Lanzarote) and was born as a collective project, an open wall of 6x8m formed by a polyptych of posters that since its inauguration expands, thanks to the active participation of the families and relatives of the victims, coming to group more than 160 photographs found or sent to email: monumentoalaoscuridad@gmail.com.
El Tanque has been chosen as a significant space because it was part of the refinery that sent oil to the Peninsula, activating at the time the fascist military machinery, which acted in collaboration with senior officials and businesspeople involved in the conspiracy of the 1936 coup d'état. El Tanque thus becomes the only memorial of all the people killed by the method of forced drowning, shot, or made to disappear in wells, ravines, or volcanic tubes during the coup d'état and repression in the archipelago.
Also on display is the homonymous video installation in which Merino and Morales sink a bronze plaque in the coordinates where the Tenerife poet Domingo Lopez Torres, admired by André Breton for his writings on surrealism, was murdered. The weight of the plaque is equivalent to the sack of stones with which he was condemned to drown. It is a way to commemorate and shed light on many anonymous stories in the Canary Islands during the Civil War and Francoism.
Also, in the final stretch to the closing of the exhibition, Merino and Morales proposed a sound action that was presented on August 31 at 8 p.m., in which the musician Fajardo and the writer Roy Galán performed the poetry book "Lo Imprevisto," an undercover work written in Fyffes prison by the young 26-year-old poet Domingo López Torres, months before his disappearance, and a symbol of the anti-fascist resistance.
