Can you imagine seeing the incredible gadgets of Roger Moore or Daniel Craig’s James Bond up close? Explore the art of spy makeup, their secret instruments, learn about some of the Stasi archives or look at Mata-Hari’s own scrapbooks? Well, starting tomorrow and until next March 17, 2024, the fascinating universe of espionage and the seventh art form the perfect couple in the exhibition Top secret: cinema and espionage at CaixaForum Barcelona.
The exhibition, in collaboration with the Cinémathèque française, displays a scenography worthy of a film that introduces the visitor to a game of mirrors that explores the unprecedented history of the links between the profession of actors and spies, as well as fiction and historical facts. . A collaboration that allows for exercises to connect cinema with major current issues, “because cinema is more than entertainment,” said Ignasi Miró, corporate director of the Culture and Science area of ??the La Caixa Foundation, at the conference. press release to present the exhibition.
An act carried out before the watchful eye of a huge black and white photograph of Greta Garbo in her role as Mata Hari, the famous Dutch dancer, courtesan and spy with great power of seduction who was also given life in fiction by Jeanne Moureu in Mata Hari, agent H-21 or Sylvia Kristel in her most erotic version. All of them have their space among a total of 270 pieces coming mostly from the Cinémathèque and from 30 different providers, including accessories and objects from both the world of cinema and espionage, original posters, drawings, filming photographs, costumes , archives, installations and artistic works in addition to 90 fragments of films and series distributed in 19 audiovisual projections.
In short, an exhibition that traces the evolution of the espionage genre in cinema throughout the 20th and 21st centuries and that “invites us to reflect on the main geopolitical conflicts of the last 100 years and on the concept of secrecy, roles of men and women that have developed in the field of espionage and in a society that increasingly extends control and inspection mechanisms over all citizens, reaching the point where we can all feel spied on today. but that, paradoxically, also allows everyone with a mobile phone in their hand to become a spy at the service of a certain interest,” adds Miró.
And since its origins, cinema has had a fascination with the world of espionage and spies as inaccessible and mysterious figures who are characterized by doing their job by hiding their condition using intelligence, seducing, persuading and with the courage to risk their lives. with the aim of obtaining confidential information that can have an effect on the lives of many people and that can modify the course of history. “A parallel and risky life that takes place outside official reality.” From this list Miró has named heroic spies such as Joan Pujol, Garbo, key to the success of the Normandy landings, or the mythical Mata Hari.
Precisely, the exhibition focuses on deconstructing the stereotype of the female spy, “who had a very sexualized image” with the presence of names such as Hedy Lamarr, precursor of GPS technology and the first actress to fake an orgasm on the big screen in Ecstasy. (1933). The visitor will come across a bronze bust of the beautiful Austrian actress and will be able to see a copy of the communication system patent that she registered in 1941. In addition, the documentary about her Bombshell figure will be available on the Caixaforum platform. The story of Hedy Lamarr.
Contemporary art is also very present with 16 works by different artists, including Andy Warhol, David Lynch and Sophie Call. Cinema and espionage proposes a chronological journey that combines four essential verbs for any spy: photograph, listen, encrypt and decipher. All of this is collected in a wide range of representative films such as Operation Cicero, The Conversation, The Three Days of the Condor, Deciphering the Enigma or The Lives of Others.
A huge chandelier welcomes us with an on and off switch that responds to a Morse code system. Suddenly, Tom Cruise appears in action in a clip from Minority report. Next, a cabinet of curiosities stored in display cases contain everything from hidden automatic mini cameras from the Cold War, an automatic receiver used by North American CIA agents, coins with secret compartments for KGB microfilms or three fake vinyl records made with x-rays that allowed transmission music and messages from East to West.
The universe of agent 007 James Bond opens before the visitor’s astonished eyes with the exhibition of fragments from his famous films, a suit and shoes worn by Craig in Casino Royale and the dress and necklace worn by Eva Green as Vesper Lynd. And pay attention because it sneaks up to the underwater crocodile in which Roger Moore was hiding in Octopussy.
The Eastern Bloc bursts into a most curious space with images of spies photographed by the artist Simon Menner and display cases that store everything from torture instruments to makeup and hairpieces, including the Bulgarian umbrella in the tip of which a microscopic poisoned pellet is hidden. The evolution of the geopolitical context, from the 70s to the present day, is completed with a more committed cinema such as Argo, by Ben Affleck, Darkest Night, by Kathryn Bigelow or Carlos, by Olivier Assayas.
There is talk of terror and terrorism in films where the secret agent is no longer a unilateral hero, like Jason Bourne. And in the scope of the series Homeland and Bureau of Departed they show mistreated secret agents. During the guided tour, the curator of the exhibition, Alexandra Midal, emphasizes the year and a half of reflection that it has taken to launch Top secret, the final section of which addresses the current era of surveillance, information and hypermediatization, in which the citizen spy, show and report. “We are in a state of total surveillance,” she says, using the Pegasus case as an example.
Spies are no longer identifiable and recognizable as they once were. This is demonstrated by documentaries such as Citizenfour, about the computer scientist Edward Snowden, or XY Chelsea, about the transgender military analyst Chelsea Manning. The latter is the protagonist of a room with 24 probable portraits of her generated by an algorithm from a DNA analysis. We can all be spies and we are all spied on. This is highlighted by this brilliant exhibition which, as complementary activities, will include conferences, a series of screenings and escape rooms and workshops for families. Shall we play spies?
