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Watching the Press, Reading the Media

Antonio Muntadas

1981 00:11:22 United StatesEnglishColorMono4:3Video

Description

“Reading various popular magazines through the camera, the dominance of advertising over content becomes apparent as the same cigarette ads are consistently legible, while the various articles become a blur. A quick scan with no pause for reflection is the only reading possible of the rapidly turning pages. Muntadas asks whether magazines might be manufactured to be read as passively as television, questioning the consequences of active, or critical, viewing.”

— Mark Mendel, Muntadas: Media Landscapes (Andover, MA: Addison Gallery of American Art, 1982)

Antoni Muntadas was born in Barcelona in 1942, and has lived in New York since 1971. His work addresses social, political and communications issues, and the relationship between public and private space within social frameworks, as well as channels of information and the ways they may be used to censor central information or promulgate ideas. He works on projects in different media such as photography, video, publications, Internet and multi-media installations. Since 1995, Muntadas has grouped together a set of works and projects titled On Translation emphasizing issues of interpretation, transcription and cultural translation. Their content, dimensions and materials are variable, and focus on the author’s personal experience and artistic activity in numerous countries over forty years.

Also see:
Antoni Muntadas: Video Portrait