Los Gésticos del Poder: el Artista Barcelonés Luis Quiles Destruye los Apetitos por el Consumismo Obediente
Kalman Hettleman Thinks 80% of Sped Students Don't Belong in Sped

The Gestics of Power: Barcelona Artist Luis Quiles Destroys Appetites for Consumption and Obedience

Luis Quiles

(A Spanish translation is at the end of this post.)

By Adriana Gamondes

Age of Autism is honored to announce the release of a new book by Barcelona artist Luis Quiles titled The Antisocial Networks which Quiles describes as a personal dissection of modern society.

The book also includes several stunning expressions of vaccine politics which the artist has generously allowed to be published here for the first time.  Though most regular readers will recognize the figures immortalized in the images above, included are CDC Whistleblower William Thompson, California Senator and vaccine mandate crusader Richard Pan, and vaccine industrialist Paul Offit.

Quiles’ book is available for preorder on Amazon only in Spain, Italy and France, but since Amazon USA carries other of Quiles’ works, The Antisocial Networks may eventually be available for direct order in the US.  Quiles’ past and current works can be viewed via Instagram, Facebook, Twitter  and DeviantART.  

Predictably, the art of Luis Quiles is often flagged as “NSFW” (not safe for work) and “adult content” because it unflinchingly covers a range of ironies, tragedies, atrocities and exploitation from child sex trafficking to war collateral to the pandemic of cyber alienation. Be warned: his work is an assault on conscience. Just don’t ask him what it means. In the Spaceman crowdfunding website through which Quiles published the book to avoid censorship, Quiles will only outline his general intent:

I see my work as a way to grab people by the chest and shake them to make them think about what they see.

Quiles describes being bombarded with criticism that his work is gratuitously perverse by people who are either unaware of the long and honored tradition of artists using black humor, garish symbolism and raw suffering to trigger political awakening… or by those who are fully aware of the power of political art to do just that and would rather it didn’t.

Artists
If political art wasn’t powerful, Bill Gates wouldn’t have attempted to hijack the tradition  to push vaccines in 2015. Furthermore  political art and satire wouldn’t be included as major strategies in the bible of civil disobedience, The Politics of Nonviolent Action by Gene Sharp which has been used by resistance movements around the world.

The question is, what is it about the era we live in that requires shaking and shocking people to make them think?  Though this brand of art is often called “alienating,” I think of it more as a proverbial finger down the throat to cure a gut full of lies. While witnessing the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany and being among the few to predict the horror that overtook Europe in that period, 20th century dissident playwright Berthold Brecht shared Quiles’ impulse:

My aim is to get the enemy [audience] at close quarters and unleash in them a seismic response. 

To achieve the seismic response, Brecht developed a theatrical device he called “social gestics” which infused entertainment with the grisly, graphic consequences of corrupted power.  From Brecht on Theater:

The pomp of the Fascists, taken at its face value, has a hollow gest, the gest of mere pomp, a featureless phenomenon: men strutting instead of walking, a certain stiffness, a lot of colour, self-conscious sticking out of chests, etc. All this could be the gest of some popular festivity, quite harmless, purely factual and therefore to be accepted. Only when the strutting takes place over corpses do we get the social gest of Fascism. 

Quiles says very little about himself or his process, instead inviting viewers to make their own interpretations.  My take is that he uses the polished, seductive weapons of PR—sexualized images, corporate logos, often festive colors and a sort of wholesome “cuteness” to many of the figures he portrays—to lure the spectator in close enough that they can’t unsee the corpses beneath the parade.

Whether the effect is unsettling, rectifying or damning depends on whether one carries the perspective of collaborator, survivor or perpetrator. 

Adriana Gamondes is a contributing editor to Age of Autism and one of the blog’s social media administrators. 

###

Los  gésticos del poder: el artista barcelonés Luis Quiles destruye los apetitos por el consumismo obediente

Luis Quiles

Por Adriana Gamondes

Age of Autism tiene el honor de anunciar el lanzamiento de un nuevo libro del artista barcelonés Luis Quiles titulado The Antisocial Networks que Quiles lo describe como “una disección personal de la sociedad moderna.”

El libro también incluye varias expresiones impresionantes sobre la políticas de vacunación que el artista generosamente ha permitido publicar aquí por primera vez. La mayoría de los lectores habituales reconocerán las figuras inmortalizadas en las imágenes más arriba, que son del denunciante del fraude del CDC,  William Thompson; el senador de California y defensor de la vacunación  completa obligatoria sin excepciones, Richard Pan ;  y el fabricante de vacunas Paul Offit.

El libro de Quiles está disponible para solicitarlo en Amazon solo en España ,Italia y Francia, pero como Amazon USA tiene otras obras de Quiles, The Antisocial Networks  pueden estar disponibles para pedidos directos en los Estados Unidos. Las obras pasadas y actuales de Quiles pueden verse a través de Instagram, Facebook, Twitter  y DeviantART.

Como era de esperar, el arte de Luis Quiles a menudo se tilda de "NSPT" (no seguro para el trabajo) y "contenido para adultos" porque cubre inquebrantablemente una serie de ironías, tragedias, atrocidades y explotación del tráfico sexual infantil, las guerras sucias hasta la pandemia de la alienación cibernética.

Tenga cuidado: su trabajo es un asalto a la conciencia. Simplemente no pregunteal autor qué significa. En el sitio web Spaceman a través del cual Quiles publicó su libro para evitar la censura, Quiles solo describe su intención general:

Veo mi trabajo como una forma de agarrar a las personas del cuello y sacudirlas para que piensen en lo que ven.

Quiles describe ser bombardeado con críticas de que su obra es desubicada y perversa por personas que, o desconocen la larga y honrosa tradición de artistas que usan el humor negro, el simbolismo chocante y el sufrimiento crudo para desencadenar el despertar político ... o por aquellos que son plenamente conscientes del poder del arte político para hacer justamente esto y prefieren que esto no suceda.

Artists

Si el arte político no fuera poderoso, los artistas que lo crean no recibirían amenazas de muerte, Bill Gates no habría intentado secuestrar la tradición con el  propósito de impulsar las vacunas en el 2015,  y no se incluiría como una estrategia importante en una de las Biblias de la desobediencia civil, The Politics of Nonviolent Action por Gene Sharp.

La pregunta es, ¿Por qué en  la era en la que vivimos requiere sacudir e impresionar a las personas para que piensen? Aunque este tipo de arte a menudo se llama "alienante", lo veo más como un dedo poético en la garganta para curar una panza lleno de mentiras. Mientras presenciaba el auge del fascismo en la Alemania de 1930 y estaba entre los pocos que predecían el horror que sobrevino en Europa en ese período, el dramaturgo disidente del siglo XX Bertolt Brecht compartía el impulso de Quiles:

Mi objetivo es acercarme al enemigo [audiencia] y desencadenar en ellos una respuesta sísmica.

Para lograr la respuesta sísmica, Brecht desarrolló un dispositivo teatral al que llamó “géstico sociales"— la “expresión mímica y géstica de las relaciones sociales que vinculan entre sí a los hombres de una determinada época” — que infundía entretenimiento con las consecuencias espeluznantes del poder corrupto. De Brecht en el teatro:

La pompa de los fascistas, tomada en su valor nominal, tiene un gesto hueco, el géstico de simple pompa, un fenómeno sin rasgos distintivos: hombres pavoneándose en vez de caminar, cierta rigidez, mucho color, autoconsciencia sobresaliendo de sus pechos, etc. Todo esto podría ser el géstico de alguna fiesta popular, completamente inofensivo, puramente factual y, por lo tanto, ser aceptado. Solo cuando los pavoneos se llevan a cabo sobre cadáveres, vemos el géstico social del fascismo.

Quiles dice muy poco acerca de sí mismo o de su proceso, e invita a los espectadores a hacer sus propias interpretaciones. Mi interpretación es que usa las armas pulidas y seductoras de la publicidad—las imágenes sexualizadas, los logos corporativos, colores festivos a menudo, y una especie de "ternura" saludable para muchas de las figuras que retrata— para atraer al espectador lo suficientemente cerca para ver los cadáveres debajo del desfile.

Si el efecto es inquietante, rectificador o condenatorio depende de si uno tiene la perspectiva de colaborador, sobreviviente o perpetrador.

Adriana Gamondes es editora colaboradora de Age of Autism y una de las administradoras de redes sociales del blog. Traducción al español por Alberto Castro.

 

 

 

 

Comments

Hans Litten

The red arm band with the $ denomination on it seems very familiar ....
I wonder what were the influences ?


I have to say this is a wonderful website here
http://eugenicsarchive.ca/discover/connections/518c1ed54d7d6e0000000002

But Pan, Offit, Boyle , Gerberding etc are not included in it anywhere !

“Man is gifted with pity and other kindly feelings; he has also the power of preventing many kinds of suffering. I conceive it to fall well within his province to replace Natural Selection by other processes that are more merciful and not less effective. This is precisely the aim of Eugenics.”
Francis Galton

“If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.”
Charles Darwin

Angus Files

A painting of a frying Pan being persued down a flight of stairs by a camera and set of frightened eyes and specs within the frying Pan painted in a modern monochrome hue and style ..no title needed..super paintings like them thanks.


Pharma For Prison

MMR RIP

Linda1

"The question is, what is it about the era we live in that requires shaking and shocking people to make them think?"
That could be the topic of part two, three, four and five.
Thanks for this important review.

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.

Your Information

(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)