M. DOLORS GENOVÉS
Europa de postguerra, 1945—1965. Art després del diluvi (Postwar Europe, 1945–1965. Art after the deluge), a documentary video included in “Europa de postguerra, 1945–1965. Art després del diluvi” (Fundació “la Caixa” and Televisió de Catalunya, Barcelona, 1995). All Genovès does is orchestrate stock footage from the postwar period—or rather she orchestrates the social war that followed the shooting war, using pop culture to undercut the authority and pomposity of official culture. Top of the pops: On The Ed Sullivan Show, Elvis Presley is performing “Hound Dog,” smiling through the tinny kinescope sound. Genovès cuts simultaneously into the hard fullness of the studio recording of “Hound Dog” and to footage of Soviet commissars filling a steep auditorium, wildly pounding their fists as if in a mad attempt to keep time. The line “You said that you was high class, well, that was just a lie” comes up; Genovès cuts to shots of Eisenhower, the Pope, de Gaulle. And then back to Elvis, who, mission accomplished, takes a bow.
