'Knife 1976-2026' Exhibition Revisits Landmark Spanish Body Art in Tenerife
The Knife 1976-2026 exhibition at Santa Cruz de Tenerife’s Bibli gallery revisits Fernando Álamo’s pioneering body art project, celebrating its historical significance in the evolution of Spanish contemporary art.
The exhibition Knife 1976-2026, now open at the Bibli gallery in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, highlights a pivotal moment in Spanish art history. Running until May 15, the show revisits a groundbreaking project created 50 years ago by Fernando Álamo, winner of the 2014 Canary Islands Fine Arts Prize, at the Ateneo de La Laguna.
Curator Octavio Zaya notes that the original 1976 project, a collaboration between Álamo and José Luis Medina Mesa, is considered one of Spain’s earliest examples of body art. It was far more than a traditional exhibition; it combined multimedia elements, sound recordings by Edmundo López, and a dramatic staging that contrasted the harshness of industrial slaughterhouses with the fragility of the human body.
Visitors at 15 San Francisco Javier Street can now explore how Álamo, born in Tenerife in 1952, used the artistic language of the 1970s to challenge the social norms of the time. The title, Knife, served as a metaphor for dissecting the political uncertainty and creative experimentation that defined that era.
Fernando Álamo has been a central figure in the Canary Islands' art scene for decades and was named an Adoptive Son of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 2010. The exhibition’s opening, held this Friday at 7:00 p.m., celebrates both a significant piece of history and the enduring influence of an artist whose multidisciplinary work remains a cornerstone of contemporary creation in the archipelago.