Parade. Pep Agut

Parade is a project by Pep Agut that draws on the imagery of the circus to imagine the archive as a space open to new possibilities. Using images of the Circ Raluy held in the collection of the Arxiu Històric de Terrassa, Agut asks what happens when we introduce new characters, stories and situations into an archive.

The title Parade refers to a procession, but also to a celebration and a spectacle designed to attract the attention of the public. This idea runs throughout the project: circus performers appear in a kind of procession beneath the structure of a classical temple. The image recalls ancient Greek celebrations, in which music and costumes allowed people to take on different identities, while also evoking an artistic tradition in which artworks contain small worlds within themselves, as in the work of Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Cornell.

Finally, Parade revisits the idea of the circus as a spectacle that takes to the streets to invite the public inside. Agut brings this idea to the façade of the archive, where images of circus performers introduce desire, eroticism and freedom. The archive thus becomes a space for play and transformation, where images from the past can give rise to new ways of looking and imagining.

Panoràmic Arxius. In collaboration with the Arxiu Històric de Terrassa and Arxiu Comarcal del Vallès Occidental.