Power on Stage

Images produced by power use certain visual motifs when transmitting their ideology through a range of means. The publication of the book El poder en escena (Power on Stage, Galaxia Gutenberg, 2023) has responded to the need to oppose this constant practice by inviting 22 male and 22 female writers to act as sleuths by tracking down and deciphering the occult nature of these icons of the public sphere and their images that are presented as if they were simply fragments of reality.

Each writer has chosen a different visual motif and investigates how this representation of themes is exercised from politics where they are perhaps most notorious for their propagandistic goals; from economics where they are based on concealment of where the real power lies; from judicial power, another sphere where opacity is the norm; from the policing domain, where images of apparent objectivity are constructed; and from the area of some social rituals whose themes are persistently and enigmatically repeated. The discussion concerns the genesis and evolution of these forms with the aim of turning back a critical gaze on the power that generates them.

The panel will consist of some of the men and women who have taken part in this collective research, together with a good part of the other authors who have been engaged in this critical scrutiny of public images.