This past Monday, 13th of May, the gallerist Jordi Mayoral; Ocaña’s personal friend and artist Nazario and art critic Pedro G. Romero celebrated José Pérez Ocaña’s memory and footprint in a conversation that lasted a little over an hour at the Museu de l’Art Prohibit.
The talk, mediated by Mayoral, went over topics like Ocaña’s virtuosity in the public space, his paintings, his performative vein and his transgression, but it also unveiled a great deal of his personal character with comments made by Nazario about the artist’s private life in his apartment at the Plaza Real in Barcelona, for example.
In contrast with Nazario’s anecdotes and memories, Pedro G. Romero offered rotound and poignant reflections regarding Ocaña’s importance for the artistc scene in Barcelona, his contributions to the underground movent at the time (alongside Nazario), his interpretation of what militancy meant to Ocaña much like his “sexual dissidence” as defined by Romero. Besides dealing with the works of the artist born in Cantillana, Pedro also meditated on his underappreciation by the critics of the 70s and 80s in accordance to his real magnitude. “When we talked about the state of the art, we talked about what happened in New York“, said Romero.
Nevertheless, the culminating point of the evening was the detailed description given by Nazario about his arrest with Ocaña. Since the aclaration that they weren’t seeking to provoke anyone on that 24th of July in 1978 with the evocation of different moments in the carcel, the drawer gifted us with a unique point of view about this unequalled moment in history like the revolt of supporting citizens of the pair at the mythical Café de la Opera while they were being arrested.
Finally, the success of the summit was proven with the attendance of an audience very moved by the discussion. As stated by Jordi Mayoral, the event was “an homage that did not turn into a mausoleum nor did it convert him into a dead figure but the opposite“.
You are encouraged to recover the entire dialogue through the Youtube channel of the Museum of Forbidden Art: