As soon as you enter, a very pompous lamp gives the impression of being broken. It flickers, with more or less intensity, even becoming dazzling. The vast majority of visitors will think something is wrong, unless they are able to understand Morse code. If they are accompanied by someone who catches a message, ask yourselves if they might not also be a spy like those who star in the new CaixaForum exhibition. Just in case, don't say anything compromising.
With the collaboration of the Cinémathèque française, Top Secret. Cinema and Espionage reviews the fascinating figure of spies, from Mata Hari to Carrie Mathison, passing through James Bond and Edward Snowden. With almost 300 pieces, the exhibition analyzes how these mysterious workers have created a cinematic myth that captivates and reflects, in its own way, the conflicts experienced in each era. Film clips, original posters, photographs, classified archives, costumes and gadgets set the scene for a journey that begins in the First World War and reaches the present day. Spanish films are not missing, with Icíar Bollaín's Mataharis and Edmon Roch's Garbo, the Spy.
Having passed the Morse code test, the exhibition offers clues about the main companions a good spy needs. From cameras hidden in jewelry, books, lighters or ties to microphones hidden in landline phones, all of them somewhat distorted by current smartphones, allowing everyone to control and be controlled. But you also have to learn to encrypt messages, whether by sending them with lamps or with your own hands, even with your eyelids. Any object can be used to pass information, such as X-rays converted into vinyl records to transmit messages outside the Soviet Union. The same goes for obtaining relevant data, as the French artist Julien Prévieux did, who in an interview obtained the fingerprints of the head of security of her country, the Minister of Interior, by making him pick up a pen. She already had what she needed to impersonate him. At that time, that leader was Nicolas Sarkozy, future president of the French Republic.
But as everyone knows, spies, if they have any license, it is to kill. Here the imagination flies even further, with unexpected weapons that no one would want to see head-on. A cologne can be used to flame someone and an umbrella to stop bullets. There are also shoes that stab knives and pipes that shoot darts. Even lipstick-guns have been created. Here, a wide display of the James Bond universe could not be missing, with whatever actor, the ultimate gentleman spy with a long history of assassinations and conquests. The exhibition includes objects used in the films, from the underwater crocodile in which Roger Moore hid in Octopussy to a blood-stained suit worn by Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.
Amidst so much Hollywood, the exhibition includes real objects from the UK intelligence services, also quite fanciful, such as a reversible coat that turns into a tweed suit to mislead, a hat with a holster included, or a notebook with makeup tricks. In fact, knowing how to disguise oneself is also an important part of a spy's job. In the midst of the Cold War, the other side of James Bond are the spies of the Eastern Bloc. A selection of photographs from the Stasi archive indicates how they had to dress to go completely unnoticed. Wigs and mustaches, even nose molds, served to quickly change appearance, as Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell so well taught in The Americans.
The exhibition, which already passed through the CaixaForum in Madrid, dedicates a special chapter to female spies, either represented as femmes fatales or directly erased from history. Mata Hari could not be missing, condemned to death for allegedly having spied for Germany in the First World War. A name romanticized by the interpretations of Greta Garbo, Jeanne Moreau, or Sylvia Kristel that is always evoked when any woman dares to immerse herself in this male-dominated business. Top Secret. Cinema and Espionage also focuses on a lesser-known but key figure in the world of espionage, Hedy Lamarr, actress and inventor of multiple gadgets, such as a secret system for transmitter coding, a precursor to GPS and Wi-Fi. The Caixaforum+ platform offers a documentary that rediscovers this Hollywood star of the 1940s.
This exhibition must tell something, as the curators, Alexandra Midal and Matthieu Orléan, even received anonymous calls during the research process they undertook to gather information and set up the tour. Who knows, the interviewees must have thought, maybe they were spies and would discover some secret of the intelligence services with the joke. For those who want to check it out, they have until March 17, 2024. In addition to guided tours, CaixaForum has programmed an escape room to feel like a real spy.