Daniel Gasol

uncovering archive 2019
Cuchitril: the artist who never was

With the discovery of a small unfinished painting in the Planas Archive, apparently painted by Winston Churchill and showing 2 military ships with a dedication to the photographer J. Planas, the video essay “Churchill: the artist that never was”, builds a narrative that investigates the political and social relations during World War II in the Balearic Islands. From Planas' video and photographic archive, the video work delves into the history of Nazi, British and American military colonies from 1935 to 1945 in Mallorca, where testimonies expose political methods that instrumentalize art as a tool to create combat strategies in territorial wars. Thus, a work that questions the official narrative is constructed, questioning the archive as a legitimate narrative entity and the documentary format as a narrative of historical rigor.