The Teatre Lliure’s resident company created the imaginary "Rojo Clavel” metro line, in homage to José Tenorio and the history of the LGBTI movement in the city. There are 10 stations in all, each corresponding to a different theme.
The Teatre Lliure, through its resident company, Lalinea, and in collaboration with Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB), is offering an artistic performance on the metro and an exhibition in the Espai Mercè Sala.
The project, entitled “Rojo Clavel”, takes us on a journey of discovery of another Barcelona through the testimonies of homosexual dissidence in the 1970s and 1980s.
The project’s guiding theme is the true and unknown history of José Tenorio, a man who came to Barcelona in the 1970s and who was forgotten because of the stigma of his sexual condition and subsequently for being HIV-positive. The artistic offering is an attempt to reconstruct an identity through collective memory, considered as a dialogue between today and the dissident Barcelona of those years.
The Rojo Clavel line: 10 stations, 10 stages of life
“Rojo Clavel” offers a fictitious metro line that traces the map of Barcelona’s LGBTI memory, as well as the journey of José Tenorio’s life through the city.
The posters put up in each of the 10 stations contain images of Tenorio performed artistically to call on the public to research his identity. By using QR codes the public will be able to access the online content with the corresponding explanations.
That way the location of the posters will create a journey through the imaginary “Rojo Clavel” metro line, with 10 stops that travel through issues relating to José Tenorio’s life and the history of the LGBTI movement in the city.
So, for example, Sants Estació relates to identity, La Sagrera to family, El Clot to intimacy, Catalunya to work, Liceu to struggle, Paral·lel to transformism, Poble Sec to shows, Fontana to premises, Diagonal to the city and Hospital Clínic to AIDS.
Thematic exhibition at the Espai Mercè Sala
At the same time, the Espai Mercè Sala, the exhibitions room in the Diagonal metro station, is playing host to Rojo Clavel, a complementary exhibition to the action of the QR codes, offering a chronological journey through José Tenorio’s life, from his arrival in Barcelona in 1971 to his return to the city of La Línea de la Concepción, Cadiz, in 1993. Tenorio was a central figure in the history of the LGBTI in Barcelona during this period.
The exhibition is on until 30 March at the Espai Mercè Sala, located in the connection corridor between the two line-5 halls at Diagonal station, Mondays to Fridays, from 10 am to 8 pm. Admission is free.
SOURCE: TMB