A Madrid exhibition showed 81 photos of T-shirts with slogans and drawings against the police.

–Photos from the exhibition ‘La guerra de las camisetas’. .. (T-Shirt Wars) by SANTI OCHOA

by Jose Durán Rodríguez via Diagonal translation The Free original en castellano abajo You have seen him many times with his camera on his shoulder in demos of recent years on the streets of Madrid. What’s more, if you wore a striking T-shirt with a witty phrase or suggestive drawing, it’s likely you’ve been photographed yourself. His name is Santi Ochoa and he’s been doing it since 2003. In his file there are now more than 20,000 images of T-shirts.

From all of them, he selected 81 for this exhibition ‘La guerra de las camiseta’, (T-Shirt Wars),now finished, in the ABM Confecciones space, on Calle Encarnación González in Madrid. The idea occurred to him last year – “to make the exhibition just before the approval of the Gag Law,” explains Ochoa to Diagonal – but it is only now it has been carried out, motivated by ‘The Last Straw’..

“After recent events, with the police storming a clothing store with slogans that incited, according to them, hatred or contempt for the Agents, I felt it in my own flesh and I decided to give a minimal response to that,” he recalls. He refers to the police Raid and seizure of abundant material (shirts, sweatshirts, caps) from the Bestiario Shop in Vallecas by the police in early October.

Another ‘over the top’ action by the police to add to the best known case of of Belén Lobeto, who in May had her court case finally dropped for carrying a bag with the acronym ACAB, or the fine in September of the singer of the group Rokavieja who said “Lotta Coppers..Little Fun”. during a concert in Yecla (Murcia) .. For Ochoa, the use of T-shirts with these slogans, many of which are song titles or have been used on album covers, “reflects a legitimate aversion felt by most of the popular classes against the police and that should be documented” .

In his opinion, the exhibition is not so much “an artistic work, even if they are photos” but rather “documentation. Some people have told me that it is social anthropology.” T-shirts, he explains, “are a form of personal expression and in social movements are freer and more authentic than those used by the culture industry, reflecting a society at a given time.” Given the precedents, it is worth asking if you are not afraid of any kind of retaliation for the exhibition. Ochoa is clear: “Documenting these types of shirts, even if they were a crime, which is a lot to suppose, is not a crime. Documenting crimes is not a crime.”

original en castellano

EXPOSICIÓN DE FOTOS

Mucha policía, poca diversión… también en tu camiseta