[Stage Voices] The Madness Displayed by Spanish Artists After 40 Years of Dictatorship

"Death of Love" and "Dance of Death":
Spanish Artists' Grotesque Scenes
Transforming the Pain of a Dark Era into Art

#After a familiar sterilization routine on stage, the actress brings a razor blade to her right knee. Moments later, three streams of red blood run down her shin and drip onto the stage floor. The actress then brings the hand holding the razor blade to her left knee. The number of blood streams increases to six. (During the May 4 performance of the National Theater's "Death of Love, The Smell of Blood Does Not Leave the Eyes, Juan Belmonte")

#The stage lights go out. Only the glow of fluorescent lamps arranged in the shape of a cross on the floor feebly resists the darkness. In the shadows, two male dancers dressed as medieval monks perform an intense dance, clutching a dummy that looks like a corpse with long white hair and dressed in a white shroud. As the dancers shake the dummy violently up and down, its white hair stands on end. In the distorted face of the dummy in the darkness, one can catch a glimpse of Edvard Munch's iconic painting "The Scream." (During the May 18 performance of GS Art Center's "Dance of Death: Tomorrow Is a Question")

Performance scenes of the National Theater's "Death of Love, The Smell of Blood Does Not Leave the Eyes, Juan Belmonte"
Photo by National Theater

Both "Death of Love" and "Dance of Death" offered a unique aesthetic rarely seen in other performances, making them intriguing yet also perplexing. Through bizarre acts such as self-harm with a razor blade and dancing with a corpse, what did the artists hope the audience would feel? It was striking that both performances, which evoked emotions difficult to define, were works by Spanish artists. This led to the question: why do Spanish artists present such dark and grotesque works?

Morau referenced "40 years of military dictatorship and oppression." Spain experienced a civil war in 1936, instigated by military forces led by Francisco Franco. Franco ultimately won the civil war and ruled Spain with an iron fist until his death in 1975. Morau said, "I think Spanish artists have an obsession with darkness," and added, "Spain endured a dictatorship for 40 years, so my grandfather's generation, for example, received extremely repressive education."

Liddel shared that she is an only child and her father was a soldier. She wrote her first poem, titled "Loneliness," at the age of nine, which so surprised her teacher that her parents were called to the school. Since Liddel was born in 1966, it is notable that she wrote the poem about loneliness around the time of Franco's death.

Both "Death of Love" and "Dance of Death" can be seen as the internalization of the pain of a dark era, sublimated into art. They are earnest appeals never to experience the pain of such dark times again. Recognizing this makes acts like self-harm with a razor blade or dancing while holding a corpse easier to accept.

GS Art Center 'Dance of Death: Tomorrow is a Question' Performance Scene
Photo by GS Art Center

Dummy Used in GS Art Center's 'Dance of Death: Tomorrow Is a Question'
Photo by GS Art Center

Art that seeks to document a dark history is also familiar to us, due to experiences and memories of dictatorship similar to those in Spain. We have recently shared the valuable experience of artists' appeals not to repeat painful history ever again. Many citizens who directly confronted the military or supported them during the December 3 Martial Law last year likely recalled films such as "A Taxi Driver," "1987," and "Seoul Spring."

The political turmoil of the past several months in South Korea was a tragedy, but at the same time, it was art in the sense that it reaffirmed the power of the people. The presidential election vote on June 3 should serve as the final punctuation mark in this history that felt like a work of art.