ALEA. Encuentros 1972. Pamplona.

Wrappers.

Important meeting point and celebration of contemporary avant garde and experimental art (along with traditional Vietnamese, Indian and Basque performances), with the participation of John Cage, David Tudor, Steve Reich, Laura Dean, Dennis Openheim, Sylvano Bussotti, Isidoro Valcarcel Medina, José Antonio Sistiaga, Ignacio Gómez de Liaño, grupo ZAJ, Equipo Crónica, André, Christo, De Maria, Dibbets, Ginzburg, Kosuth, Manzini, Muntadas, Nannucci y Serra.. Taking place at the end of the Franco dictatorship, the event came up against the opposition of the Spanish Communist Party, the Basque terrorist group ETA, who planted two bombs, and, of course, Franco's govenment officials who grumbled that the city would fill up with "whores and queers" (although it was supported by the Municipality of Pamplona and the Diputación, or provincial government of Navarra, and largely financed by the locally based Huarte family, who ran ones of Spain's largest construction companies, responsible for the construction of Franco's phallic and pharaonic mausoleum in el Valle de los Caídos.)
The volume itself is a wonderfully extravagant publication, designed by José Luis Alexanco, full of fold outs, geometric drawings, annotated photographs, computer print outs, with the preliminary pages printed on celophane. Some minor nicks in the margins of the front covers, spine a bit rubbed and slightly darkened, but a very acceptable copy overall. Rare, only 22 copies on WorldCat. (More photos on our website).