The phenomenon that shook culture like a tambourine and left behind a colorful yet tainted story...
Before the death of General Francisco Franco in November, 1975, Spain was a country ruled by extremely conservative ideals. The Catholic Church still dictated sex, identity, and behavior codes, and the alliance between the extreme right and religion had built a society that marched like a platoon.
But change was coming with the end of the Franco regime, and a new country was to rise. Opinions immediately went their separate ways after his death, and while a large group of supporters felt that the future of Spain could no longer go anywhere good, many others celebrated what this development meant: the possibility of freedom and expression.
On a road to nowhere?
That expression started to show itself as a marginal aesthetic of sexual empowerment accompanied by a heavy use of recreational drugs and something of a heritage left from the previous and parallel undertaking known as the Quinqui Movement, a tendency primarily found in film that portrayed the life of street delinquents. But La Movida appeared in a new level of society and took on a different light, which although followed by the dark shadow of drugs and madness, succeeded in giving birth to creativity, talent, and artistic experimentation.
The visual turned the corner and began to produce questions within a small group that was now being influenced by a wave of tourism and international media that brought along music, art and new ideas; these strange new ones were anxious to rebel through the arts and to learn along the way. Amateur bands inspired by British movements such as New Wave, Punk and Synth Pop emerged quickly and started to push through, creating new spaces where musical performances set the ambiance for art exhibitions and other happenings. Many of the musicians didn't know how to play instruments and artists were not formally trained, but their intention was not to become professionals- rather, they only sought a newly open identity. "We were thirsty. Before Franco died we could count the number of concerts we saw with the fingers on one hand and then all of a sudden there was an explosion and all our idols came to Spain, mainly because it was no longer ruled by a dictator," remembers Javier Furia from the band Radio Futura in the documentary, The Madrilenian Movement, by UPV.
Who moved Madrid?
Collaborations between artists ruled the Movida Madrileña and while all artistic practices appeared under its wings, music lead the way with bands like Kaka de Luxe, Radio Futura, Parálisis Permanente, Los Zombies, Asfalto, Ejecutivos Agresivos and Alaska y los Pegamoides among many others with avant- garde sounds and lyrics plus a strongly androgynous style which verged on the overtly sexual, marked not only the aesthetic of young culture but also its approach and understanding of homosexuality, feminism and alternative lifestyles.
In the visual arts, names such as El Hortelano, Ouaka Lele, Alberto GarcĂa-Alix, Nazario, Pedro Perez Minguez, Agust (also bass player to the band Los Zombies), Miguel Trillo and Las Costus (Enrique Naya and Juan Carrero) took over the scene with divergent styles that portrayed urban tribes, street life, surreal pop culture, transgender storyline, Spanish royalty and folklore, as well as new perspectives on traditional imagery. In fact, one of the first official art collectives appeared in this period under the name of Cascorro Factory, founded by Ceesepe, Agust, El Hortelano and GarcĂa Alix, becoming creative headquarters for many of the most important ideas of La Movida.
These artists were constantly at work on their own projects, but above all, crafted their creations as a fraternal artistic ensemble. Magazines like Madrid me Mata (Madrid Kills Me) or Luna de Madrid (Madrid Moon) were places to find all these emerging artists' paintings, drawings and poetry. In the documentary La Mirada Cautiva (A Captivating View), El Hortelano, a painter who was an original member of La Movida says, "it was a very mixed thing, you know...you don't see that nowadays, we were all incorporated with each other: visual artists worked with filmmakers, and filmmakers with musicians, designers with visual artist...everyone, and that was what made it beautiful..."
But film was the sphere where all arts could be conveyed, and it was through Pedro AlmodĂłvar and Ivan Zulueta's lenses that the aesthetic values and questions of that time found a place to perpetuate themselves between the realms of vision, time and space. Movies such as Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montĂłn (Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap) and Laberinto de pasiones (Labyrinth of Passions) from AlmodĂłvar and Zulueta's Arrebato (Outburst) created new underground scenarios where conservative values had no space and where reality and fiction had no true limit; a penis size contest in a bar, a horny woman being urinated on, a sexy photo shoot where a man is hurt by a power tool, or nightmare-like scenes with conversations about time are just but small portions of what was a new current in art. "It's difficult to speak of La Movida and explain it to those who didn't live those years. We weren't a generation; we weren't an artistic movement; we weren't a group with a concrete ideology. We were simply a bunch of people who coincided with one of the most explosive moments in the country," said AlmodĂłvar in an interview for Madrid-Uno.
The age of gold
La Movida continued as a marginal cultural revolution up until 1983, and then slowly marched into the mainstream with the national TV broadcast of La Edad de Oro (The Age of Gold) hosted by visual artist Paloma Chamorro. The show was an explosion of cultural and artistic topics where emerging artists from every scene found a place to present themselves to the rest of Spain; international bands and art collectives started taking part in what was happening in Madrid and soon the style of La Movida was no longer followed by a few, but by masses of teenagers and young adults who advanced the movement, turning it into a hipster trend.
But in 1985, counter-culture was counter-atta-cked. One episode of the show introduced a video by Genesis P. Orridge called Moonchild, where Jesus' head was replaced by that of an unidentifiable animal, and a series of dark sequences of naked women, in ritual-like scenarios, played out. Some people thought the Age of Gold should come to an end because of this episode, and in 1985 the show was shut down.
30 years on the move
It was only last year that the Madrilenian Movement celebrated its 30 year anniversary, sharing its legacy with those of us who were born and brought up during the same time. Today, the world is a different place, though not as progressive as one would hope. Nevertheless, the Madrilenian Movement transgresses time to celebrate artistic and cultural innovation. La Movida produced a socio-cultural mass that still holds the identity of Spain together and shares it with the world through the work of writers, photographers, filmmakers, painters, and many others that saw the face of freedom within the realm of creation. "It's clear how the proliferation of artists and opportunities that happened in that time influenced the contemporary culture of Spain, not only because of the legacy it left and is still leaving - due to the fact that many of those artists are still active - but also because of the social influence. It created a need for communication and culture that was necessary for a country that had been asleep for 40 years", says Jose RamĂłn Perez, known as Guny, bass player from the legendary band, Asfalto.
