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Juan Muñoz: The Politics of Silence

Juan Muñoz: The Politics of Silence Mark Stuart-Smith

Juan Muñoz: The Politics of Silence is an analysis and interpretation of Muñoz’s art in the sociopolitical context of the transition to democracy in Spain. The subtitle – The Politics of Silence – alludes to the book’s two main, interwoven strands: firstly, an argument about the ways in which the work is structured by silences; and secondly, an exploration of the silences of recent Spanish political history. 

The author analyses a number of different strategies of silencing across a series of works in various mediums, exploring the way these works resonate with their historical ground. His aim is to locate Muñoz more precisely in relation to Spanish history and memory, as an artist who was thoroughly engaged with his time. 

The book forms part of Peter Lang’s Cultural Memories series, which is the publishing project of the Centre for the Study of Cultural Memory at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of London.

Mark Stuart-Smith is an art historian and visual artist based in London. He completed a PhD at Birkbeck (University of London) on words and images in the work of Juan Muñoz in 2013. Mark’s published articles include ‘Opticality and Ventriloquism in Juan Muñoz’s The Wasteland (1986)’ in Art History, November 2017, ‘From Mousike to Synaesthesia: New Interdisciplinary Agendas in Music and Visual Culture’ in Art History, February 2016. ‘Critical Silences in Spanish Art History 1945-2010’ in Art History, November 2013, and 'Spanish Memory Wars' in Journal of Romance Studies Winter 2009. 

Dr Mari Paz Balibrea is Reader in Spanish Cultural Studies at the School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication at Birkbeck (University of London). Her research focuses on the political role of culture in contemporary Spain, and the imaginary of the Spanish exile. Her books include En la tierra baldía. Manuel Vázquez Montalbán y la izquierda española en la postmodernidad (1999), Tiempo de exilio. Una mirada crítica a la modernidad española desde el pensamiento republicano en el exilio (2007) and The Global Cultural Capital: Addressing the Citizen and Producing the City in Barcelona (2017). She was coordinator for Líneas de fuga. Hacia otra historiografía cultural del exilio republicano español (2017).


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