Compilation by Eugeni Bonet

Video projection. 35' 09"

With the epigraph Subsensory Experiences, Actions, and Activities is gathered a group of works focused on how the physical world is translated into the individual world through the senses.

This is one of the first works with which Muntadas begins to explore the field of video. Reflections on how private space is constructed, perceived and expressed bring together a number of relevant concepts in Muntadas’ work. By this group of works made roughly between 1971 and 1973 Muntadas examines the knowledge provided by the senses, the ways of challenging reality through the body.

A significant part of the proposals grouped together under the heading Subsensory Experiences, Actions, and Activities seems to deconstruct the private and, at the same time, define an architecture of perception based on the traffic of collective experiences. It is a series of individual and collective experiences that consisted of touching different materials and objects. The different properties of the objects (rugosity, roughness, ductility, etc.) provided information that differed from the one obtained through other senses that are prioritised both socially and artistically, as sight and hearing.

A good part of the [experiences] were conceived bearing in mind the actual characteristics of the space. Indeed, Muntadas would soon make a habit of this, and to allow each individual context to determine his projects became essential. [….] On the other hand, audiovisual media gradually acquired specific weight in his practice and ended up leading Muntadas down other paths. Still cameras, Super–8 and video cameras and sound and image recordings in general provided him with a way of publicising the actions he carried out in private, seldom before an audience. Whether they were individual actions between two people or group events, they were initially labelled experiences and systematically numbered from 1 to 55, after which they were described as reconnaissance and transformation activities. [….] The paradox is that due to the lack of other systems for recording and reproducing tangible, olfactory and gustatory impressions, these investigations of the subsenses were conducted by the major senses.

Eugeni Bonet

Sensitivity and (sub)senses. Muntadas, from painting to active engagement (2011)