Sergio Monje

At the Expanded Literature Festival of Magaluf (FLEM), Casa Planas was invited to curate a small exhibition at the Hotel Melià INNSiDE, where the festival is held. There, I was able to make a video projection of my piece Todas las costas posibles on the façade of the hotel. Taking into account the context in which we were participating, a cultural festival financed by one of the main hotel chains in the world, I decided to take this opportunity to secretly include a critical message in the festival program: a gesture to break the touristic realism that underlies the “culture washing” of FLEM, which is, ultimately, a way of legitimizing and propagandizing tourism and the hotel chain that promotes it. The quote equates the Thatcherite “there is no alternative” with the “vivim del turisme” (“we live off tourism”) that is so often repeated here, and which crystallizes the essence of touristic realism: both exude the same pro-status quo pessimism, the same impulse to silence thought.

However, this message only appears in the space of one frame of the video, and can only be read for 1/24th of a second. The resulting image is that of the moment in which this frame appears. This gesture seeks to point out how criticism of the tourist model is, therefore, a taboo, especially if Melià is the one who finances critical voices and culture.

Thanks to:

Alelí Mirelman, Juanmi Bauzà, Auvipro, FLEM

With support from: