"And speaking with her, she uttered these winged words," the first canto of the Iliad tells us. More than twenty-seven centuries later, the transmission will not be through divine messengers, like the goddess Iris, but through women who will communicate their knowledge thanks to one of the great inventions: radio. It is undeniable that this phenomenon revolutionized the tumultuous first half of the 20th century.
[subscribe_newsletter_esp]
Towards the 1930s, it became a popular medium, present in a large part of homes, bringing all kinds of messages ---advertising, ideological, entertainment...--- to a predominantly illiterate population. Later, it would be nicknamed the narcotic of the masses. What may be less known is the diversity of roles that women have played in it, in Catalonia. In this aspect, one must brush against the grain, as Walter Benjamin would say.
Visitors who come to the exhibition Dones a les ones, at the Museu d'Història de Catalunya until February 21, 2021, will enjoy an experience whose focal point is hearing, guided by the voice-overs that play in the different rooms and by the audiovisual material available through QR codes. Conceived as a historical and thematic journey, the exhibition emphasizes the female struggle to make their way in the different professions associated with radio (announcers, editors, external collaborators, producers, sound technicians, journalists, directors of municipal radio stations, scriptwriters...) represented by some of their pioneers, but also on women as consumers and on the conditioning of their behavior within the gender roles in force in each historical period.
The exhibition emphasizes the female struggle to make their way in the different professions associated with radioThus, since the creation of EAJ-1 Radio Barcelona in 1924, during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, radio has been, among others, a space made by anddestined for women. Programs likeFemale Radiotelephony of Fashions and Domestic Science(1927) with the locution of theMiss Salus, pseudonym of Maria Cinta Balagué or the famous sentimental advice columns sought a female audience with topics on health, cosmetics, fashion, beauty, parenting and household chores, in a society where they were relegated to the private sphere (except in the brief period of the Republic, where women enjoyed an important role in cultural dissemination).
During Franco's regime, the function of radio would focus on propaganda and entertainment due to strong information censorship and the purging of personnel for ideological reasons. Hence, programming incorporated contests, sports broadcasts, adapted theatrical performances, musical programs, and radio formats. It is from the seventies and eighties that radio began to have a more informative function, that the first feminist programs appeared, and that Catalan was recovered in broadcasts.
The fruitful relationship between women and radio, constricting but also liberating, will be the cornerstone for delving into topics as varied as theater, music and interpretation, political and social disputes, the country's history, the ideology associated with the modes and contents of programs, technological innovation, censorship and freedom of expression, language, cultural consumption and propaganda, fiction and entertainment spaces, or the popularity of media and its transformation.
An especially interesting proposal that accompanies the exhibition is the voice bank: an interactive project that collects clips from more than 200 journalists, broadcasters, actresses, and editors. Directed by curator Elvira Altés, a journalism professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and a researcher in communication and gender, it is intended for both public consultation and research. In this wonderful and unfinished archive, we hear, for example, how Maria Aurèlia Capmany talks about the art of narrating on Radio 4: "Narrating, which serves perfectly to tell a story. I would use it for that. With a beginning and an end, or leaving it cut short. That reminds me that I really like narrations." Other examples are the entertaining "Trifulques d'una catalana a Londres," from the program A correcuita on Ràdio Girona (1976) by Paulina Pi de la Serra or fragments from Consultorio Elena Francis, by Roser Cavallé.
An especially interesting proposal that accompanies the exhibition is the voice bank: an interactive project that collects clips from more than 200 journalistsIn short, this historical reconstruction of radio with a gender perspective, from the early 20th century to today, is a sound journey that convenes a plurality of scenariosof human life. From the recovery and dissemination of the female figures of the country who have dedicated their professional careers and their efforts to make a place for themselves in a patriarchal society, we are shown the reflection of the cultural and ethico-political fluctuations of the last century in our land. We have missed, perhaps, a certain intersectionality (more plurality in the references); a lack that points, not to Altés' selection, but to the reality of the profession. For this reason, and for the intrinsic value of the project, we hope that it continues to grow and welcome new voices. And it is that, above all, it is a fantastic exhibition that, due to the multiplicity of topics it addresses and its transversality, will be interesting for all audiences.