{"id":8567,"date":"2014-01-10T12:59:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T12:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/a-desk.org\/2014\/01\/10\/a-large-margin-of-error\/"},"modified":"2014-01-10T12:59:00","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T12:59:00","slug":"a-large-margin-of-error","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/","title":{"rendered":"A large margin of error"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Margen
\nBreaking down the underlying historical discourses and colonial paradigms within hegemonic Spanish narratives is the aim of the collective Magnetic Declination <\/em> in the exhibition \u201cMargin of Error\u201d, at the Tasneem Gallery<\/a> (Barcelona), their first public intervention after their formation that emerged from the research group DKA (Decolonizing Knowledge and Aesthetics), part of a joint operation between Matadero and Goldsmiths College, launched in Madrid in October 2012. <\/p>\n

The point of departure for the exhibition is the affirmation that there are canons so deeply rooted in the postcolonial mentality that we aren\u2019t even aware of their existence. In one of the videos in the exhibition, having enumerated the evils of the conquest and colonization of America, the participants are asked to argument the benefits and contributions that they brought. We are therefore witnesses to how the mind more easily locates these \u201cbenefits\u201d as feasible information that we are able to remember because of the education we\u2019ve received. As even though this information seems to be more than revised, Spain today is the only country in Europe that doesn\u2019t have any Masters or Postgraduate studies dedicated to post-colonialism. <\/p>\n

Seeing the works in the exhibition the words of Judith Butler come to mind, when she talked of discriminating or distinguishing which crimes appeared punishable to us, or which lives were worth crying over. Just as this racism embedded in our levels of perception tends to produce iconic versions of populations eminently worthy of mourning and others whose loss isn\u2019t understood as such and who aren\u2019t worthy of being lamented. <\/p>\n

We also realise that it is still easier to talk of the evils of the conquest as a general process than single out names and facts, unless these names are so distant and \u201cpicturesque\u201d, like those of Christopher Columbus, the Catholic monarchs or the Pinz\u00f3n brothers. The terrain becomes more thorny when one talks of statues that raise affectionate fingers in each corner of the Catalan geography, patricians of the city, \u201ccharitable souls\u201d that established pious schools, promoted the development of cities and towns\u2026at the cost of the slave trade. <\/p>\n

In the work titled CC13 the artists Daniela Ortiz and Xose Quiroga ask participants directly about the Diada<\/em> in Catalonia, whether they would be in favour of knocking down the statue of Columbus, or mention the direct involvement of citizens like Antonio L\u00f3pez i L\u00f3pez, (a recognised slave trader with a statue that is currently standing in the Llotja del Comercio in Barcelona) in the founding of banks like Hispanocolonial. I believe that this is one of the points that should be stressed more, in exhibitions like the one in Tasneem or in works like those by Daniela and Xose: we\u2019re not talking about isolated evils, so much as figures who didn\u2019t just dedicate themselves to the trading of people, so much as agreed upon and maintained the power of the Spanish monarchy, establishing the bases for the political and economic power currently established in Catalonia, against which millions of people protest. <\/p>\n

Memory, the repetitive act is the protagonist of the exhibition \u201cMargin of Error\u201d and it\u2019s what betrays us. The indolence, the action of mechanically repeating the cruelties of the conquest, the indifference of citizens regarding statues and monuments of the city, the \u201cpride\u201d that demonstrates a lack of awareness about a colonial past where cruelties and physical and cultural annihilation \u201cwere inevitable, as in any process of conquest in which the dominance of the most developed people is validated\u201d are a series of paradigms to be dismantled through the works; from the physical dismantling of textbooks to the investigation and development of \u201cacademic\u201d exercises. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Breaking down the underlying historical discourses and colonial paradigms within hegemonic Spanish narratives is the aim of the collective Magnetic Declination in the exhibition \u201cMargin of Error\u201d, at the Tasneem…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1262,"featured_media":8520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6783],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA large margin of error – A*Desk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A large margin of error – A*Desk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Breaking down the underlying historical discourses and colonial paradigms within hegemonic Spanish narratives is the aim of the collective Magnetic Declination in the exhibition \u201cMargin of Error\u201d, at the Tasneem...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A*Desk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-01-10T12:59:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DSCN2227.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"503\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mabel Llevat\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mabel Llevat\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/\",\"name\":\"A large margin of error – A*Desk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DSCN2227.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-01-10T12:59:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-01-10T12:59:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f9eaab731617b19d9a2ab8e3e0eb3a97\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DSCN2227.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DSCN2227.jpg\",\"width\":670,\"height\":503,\"caption\":\"Margen de error en la Tasneem Gallery\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Portada\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A large margin of error\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/\",\"name\":\"A*Desk\",\"description\":\"A*Desk Critical Thinking\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f9eaab731617b19d9a2ab8e3e0eb3a97\",\"name\":\"Mabel Llevat\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/6293ab76b2c9e2cb0b493d9ce6cf04e0\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccfd3d2059ded5dbb59a1d81c25f2314?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccfd3d2059ded5dbb59a1d81c25f2314?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mabel Llevat\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/autor\/llevat\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A large margin of error – A*Desk","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A large margin of error – A*Desk","og_description":"Breaking down the underlying historical discourses and colonial paradigms within hegemonic Spanish narratives is the aim of the collective Magnetic Declination in the exhibition \u201cMargin of Error\u201d, at the Tasneem...","og_url":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/","og_site_name":"A*Desk","article_published_time":"2014-01-10T12:59:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":670,"height":503,"url":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DSCN2227.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mabel Llevat","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mabel Llevat","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/","url":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/","name":"A large margin of error – A*Desk","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DSCN2227.jpg","datePublished":"2014-01-10T12:59:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-01-10T12:59:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f9eaab731617b19d9a2ab8e3e0eb3a97"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DSCN2227.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/DSCN2227.jpg","width":670,"height":503,"caption":"Margen de error en la Tasneem Gallery"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/magazine\/a-large-margin-of-error\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Portada","item":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A large margin of error"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/","name":"A*Desk","description":"A*Desk Critical Thinking","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f9eaab731617b19d9a2ab8e3e0eb3a97","name":"Mabel Llevat","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/6293ab76b2c9e2cb0b493d9ce6cf04e0","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccfd3d2059ded5dbb59a1d81c25f2314?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ccfd3d2059ded5dbb59a1d81c25f2314?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mabel Llevat"},"url":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/autor\/llevat\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8567"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8567"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/a-desk.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}